ReDial
by 25Dragonfly
Summary: Pretty much just a college Slice of Life written in Kojima's perspective that follows day to day life. Nothing too serious. (Rewrite of IWTLY) LGBT.
1. Chapter 1

**~Prologue: ReDial~**

* * *

(no, I TOTALLY didn't name this fic after one of my favourite Vocaloid songs, what are you talking about?)

* * *

"And, that should be good," I say finally, after closing the paper thin plastic shield on the newly-reated persocom's body, and covering it up with the synthetic "skin" and sealing it.

I quickly wipe my hands on my already oil-covered white shirt and stretch. "Well, that took me waaaaay longer than I expected."

"Soooooooooo, Kojima," A voice begins, poking her head into my... space, "You finally finished that persocom!" she immediately dashes in and pushes me over, "OH MY GOD! SHE'S SO PRETTY!"

This would be Umi Ka'uhane. She is one of my three best friends; she has long, teal hair, and is a complete Vocaloid fanatic... yes she gets annoying but I somehow deal with it.

"UMI! SHUT UP!" an annoyed voice yells from upstairs "IF YOU'VE ALREADY FORGOTTEN, THERE ARE THREE MORE PEOPLE OTHER THAN YOU IN THIS HOUSE!"

And then there is her twin brother Ryoku Ka'uhane. He's the type of person who hates being interrupted while he is gaming (which seems like it's 24/7).

"Yeah, yeah Ryoku! You're probably just playing games on your console again!" Umi says, disappearing out of the room.

Yup, just a typical 3 A.M on a Monday right before some big event that only one of us has to prepare for but everyone has to stay up and make sure that ONE person gets their project done in time (because we are all just a bunch of procrastinators who put things off until the very last minute).

And that one person is me. Just a lowlife 20 year old in their third year at Tokyo U, who lives with their three best friends in an extremely small house that only has one floor which is our main living space, and one basement where everyone has one room to work on their major, and is waaaaay too expensive. We get by due to the fact that Umi works at a cosplay Cafe, Ryoku (her twin brother) works at some fancy-ass French restaurant as a sous chef, Seiji (The other guy that lives with us) works at... I don't even know, and I just work at an electronics shop.

I'm the younger one of the group, falling about three years behind everyone else (they are all 23 and I'm 20). Why? Because in elementary, I kinda skipped three grades...

So basically we're just a bunch of Otaku who have been best friends for twelve years, and who cosplay to nearly everything. No big deal.

Tomorrow is the Japanese National Persocom Contest on a college level. I'm not going to win, and I know that for a fact. Everyone else who has entered has been working on their persocoms for at least a month, I've only been working on mine for about a week non-stop.

"Geez, Am I the only one who's trying to sleep here? Like c'mon we all have to wake up super early tomorrow morning for Kojima's big convention," A voice complains groggily. This would be Seiji Shimbo, he's majoring in Criminology and is trying to become a detective. One thing is, he is extremely hot, I mean _extremely_... I've had a crush on him ever since twelfth grade...

"Yeah, yeah Sage Boy," Soon, a loud thud rings throughout the house. This can only mean that Umi has glomped Seiji, and is preparing on giving him a full on lecture.

"UMI! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU NOT TO CALL ME SAGE BOY!"

"Give it up Sage Boy," I say, wondering out of my room and into the hallway where Umi has her knee pressed right up against Seiji's neck, "no matter how many times you ask, she will never stop."

"KOJIMA! DO I HAVE TO START CALLING YOU SMALL ISLAND* AGAIN TO MAKE YOU SHUT UP?" Seiji yells, thrashing around in order to get Umi off of his neck.

My eyebrow twitches in annoyance, "say that again Sage Boy?" I quickly pull out a pair of wire clippers that have somehow found their way behind my ear, and I lightly push it up against his ear.

"N-nevermind!" he stammers.

"WILL EVERYBODY JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Ryoku hollers.

"NOT UNTIL YOU GET DOWN HERE!" Umi responds.

Oh yeah, we are extremely violent with each other over the stupidest things. I'm kinda surprized no-one has at least two broken limbs already.

I swear, for any normal human being, they'd be getting a splitting migraine if they even spend thirty seconds in here at night. What with all the yelling, and, the anime, and blasting in the background, it's inevitable. But, we're used to it.

Following suite are some very exasperated footsteps.

"What is it this time?" Ryoku asks.

"Hmph, ignorant. DID YOU NOT HEAR US YELLING ABOUT KOJIMA FINALLY FINISHING HIS PERSOCOM JUST A SPLIT SECOND AGO? Also, speaking of persocoms, where is Kotoko?" Umi says.

"Oh, she's upstairs recharging," I sigh, "anyways if you really want to see her, just let me go detach her from all the wires."

I quickly go into my workspace, and I carefully unplug her, and I look her over one last time before bringing her out and carrying her upstairs and laying her down on one of the futons.

She has bright orange hair that is suspended in a messy bun held together by chopsticks, as for her clothes, she has a wide-strapped black leather tank top that is somewhat baggy and has a black belt loosly suspended around her waist, and she has black shorts.

"C'mon hurry up and turn her on!" Umi squeals excitedly in my ear. Seiji, Ryoku, and I all snicker like seven year old brats at the innuendo that could be made there.

Umi rolls her eyes, "I swear to god, I wonder if you guys are five yeasr olds trapped inside adult bodies."

"Says _you_ Miss I think that all donuts that have a filling and/or a hole sexual," Ryoku snaps.

"Guys shut up!" I order, letting my hand slide up to the persocom's shoulder and pressing the switch.

Everyone watches intently as her eyes flutter open, revealing dazzling dark green eyes. She looks around the room, and sits up.

"Hello," She looks at the group with a confused look, "What are your names?"

Umi slides over and immediately introduces herself, "I'm Umi Ka'uhane, that derpy, dorky lookin' guy is my twin brother Ryoku Ka'uhane," she points at Ryoku, then at Seiji, "then this buff-looking guy who is actually pretty weak over here is Seiji Shimbo, but you can just call him Sage Boy."

As usual Seiji gives her the stare of death.

"So, I guess that means that all of you are my masters?" the persocom guesses.

"Nope, I am," I say, pushing Umi over into the guys behind her.

"Oh, and what might your name be?"

"Yoshiyuki Kojima, or as these perverts like to call me 'Dragonfly'" Is all that I can say, before Umi knocks me over and plants her foot on my face, while the others prod at my sides with their fingers.

"Soooooooooo, Dragonfly. You decided to push me over just so that you could have first dibs on being the "master" huh?" she cackles as she cracks her knuckles.

"Technically, I already had first dibs because, hm, it just slipped my mind... oh yeah! Because I built her," I snap back, as my lips curl into a mischeivious grin, "you can't undo dibs, man." I shift my glasses slighlty so that they catch the glint of a nearby lamp; creating what is commonly called in the Otaku community the "Scary Shiny Glasses" effect, before sitting upright and punching Umi square in the jaw.

"Now, where was I?" I wonder aloud, standing up and rubbing my hands together.

"Master Kojima-" the persocom begins.

"Please, don't be so formal. Just call me whatever you want. I hate it when people are formal."

"Oh, okay then, what should I call you?"

"Hmmmm, just plain Dragonfly or Kojima."

"Ok then,"

"Well," I say yawning, "you should probably go into 'Hibernate' just to calibrate every single one of your systems. I know it's pretty short time wise, but who knows, maybe it'll actually be done." I quickly help her up, as she walks over to a nearby chair and sits down.

"OKAY! It's been decided! Kojima will sleep on the floor tonight!" Umi announces.

"Are you serious Umi?" I sigh, "I'VE HAD TO SLEEP ON THE FLOOR ALL THIS PAST WEEK!"

"Yeah, because you were last!" She counters. I facepalm, knowing that there is no way to change her mind.

"EVERYBODY JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP AND HEAD TO BED!" Ryoku yells, while wondering over to the TV and turning on the Y-Bocs.

"Says you!" Umi snaps, stomping over to him and shutting off the console, this of course leads to an all-out brawl between the two siblings.

Seiji and I quickly give each other a look before dashing to the futons and claiming two of them to ourselves.

"HA! Now one of you has to sleep on the floor tonight!" I laugh, before disappearing under the covers.

Yup, I can most definitely assure everyone that I do NOT live in a normal household with normal people. But, meh, who cares? I like it.

* * *

 **Author's note: So yeah, as you can** **probably already tell, this fic is going to be almost completely different from the previous one (IWTLY). I decided to keep Tokyo Rose (although she doesn't have a name yet), Umi, and Ryoku because I really, really, really had a lot of fun creating those characters and I wanted to keep them. I left out Annai because I didn't really feel that she had a personality of her own, plus I found that plotline to be generic.**

 **So, the reasons as to why I wanted to restart was because I really had no motivation for the other one. It was dragging out too long, and the plot was a huge mess.**

 **Also, along with this rewrite I will be working on an Undertale fic titled An Advantage with a Cost, which you can check out if you want, so I will be switching inbetween the two a lot.**

 **I hope you guys enjoy the re-write!**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1.) All The Way

* * *

"DRAGONFLY! GET YOUR LAZY ASS OUTTA BED!" Umi yells, relentlessly shaking Kojima vigorously.

"Hmmmmmmmm... five more minutes..." he murmurs, turning onto his stomach and flipping the pillow over his ears in attempt to block the noise around him.

"Yuki..." Umi begins in a warning voice.

"zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..."

"YOSHIYUKI KOJIMA GET YOUR ASS OUTTA BED!"

"zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..."

She rolls her eyes, "Sage Boy, get over here and help me pull Koj out of bed."

"Sure," Seiji says, still knocking the sleep out of his head, not even noting the fact that Umi just called him "Sage Boy".

"Ok, on three you'll yank the pillow and I'll pull him out, ok 1...2...3!"

Seiji rips the pillow out of Kojima's grip, before Umi yanks on his arms sending him flying across the room and hitting his head on a nearby couch.

"Owwwww..." he groans, rubbing the spot, "Umi, what the hell was that for?"

"That was a literal wake up call telling you that your thing is in an hour and a half!"

"What?" He glances at his watch, before realizing that he took it off and looks at his phone that has stuck to his back, "OH SHIT!"

"UMI! WHY DIDNT YOU WARN ME SOONER! I NEED AT LEAST TWO HOURS!" He yells, frantically tearing the room apart like a maniac in search of... something, "oh, come on, come on! I could've sworn that I put my one formal-ish outfit right on that chair!"

"Master, you mean The Couch, right?" Kotoko asks in her usual monotone voice.

"Yeah..."

"It's right downstairs on the chair you expictly told us to remind you about."

Kojima smacks his palm against his forehead as he rushes downstairs.

* * *

*Ahem* allow me to explain what "The Couch" refers to. So, you know that chair or bed everyone has? Yeah, THAT chair covered in random shit that might have a purpose later? Well, its kinda like that, only instead of things that might have a purpose, its covered in action figure boxes, manga, and other packaging. And considering how Kojima and his friends are all hardcore otaku, it kinda makes sense.

* * *

*One hour and twenty-five minutes later...*

The four arrive at the hallway just before lecture hall #39. Students and persocoms are scattered along the sides, some of them are nervously pacing around, while most of them are quietly sitting and waiting. Kojima on the other hand... well...

"Uhhhhh... shit what have I gotten myself into _this_ time!?" He mutters nervously, as he brings his fingers up to his mouth and begins chewing on his nails.

"Yuki, you'll be fine..." Umi repeats for the fiftith time in ten minutes.

"Yeah,butontheotherhandwhatifeverythinggoeswrongandProfessorIcchanthinksI'mafailureandbansmefromeverstepping footoncampuseveragain, thusmakingmydreamtobecomeatopcomputerscientistjustgointothetrash?"

"Stop biting your nails, and no that won't happen..." Ryoku sighs, swiping his bangs off to the other side.

"Youknowwhat? I'mkindafeelingabitsickrightnowsoi'mjustgonnaleave..." Kojima rambles, turning around and running down the hallway.

Seiji facepalms as he runs after the extremely introverted and socially awkward nerd, and grabs his arm before dragging him back to his spot.

"All right Small Island of Righteous Snow, get back here and get this over with. We didn't stay up until 3 A.M and wake up at 7:30 just so you can bail on us."

Kojima glares at him, almost punching him in the face before realizing where they are and stopping himself.

Soon, the door to the lecture hall opens and a girl walks out with her persocom and a content look on her face.

"Uh... Whoever Yoshiyuki Kojima is, they are ready for you now," she says. Dragonfly freezes in terror as he hears his name.

"Alright ya dork, get in there, or we're gonna throw ya in there!" Umi threatens, looking him directly in the eye.

"Uh, yup I'm in there!" He grabs his persocom and disappears into the room.

* * *

(Seiji's POV).

Several people look at our group with the look that crazy people get. I don't blame 'em either. we are pretty weird.

I stifle a laugh I can feel coming on with a weak cough.

Damn, he's cute! And I don't mean it in the "awwwwwww! Look at the kitten" kind of adorable, I mean it as in "God damn it he's clumsy, awkward, over enthusiastic about certain things, and gets super embarrassed and flustered easily".

He's also super lazy, loves science, wears nothing but pyjamas and his green sweater and doesn't change if he doesn't have too, is addicted to these stupid little chocolate cream-filled panda cookies, loves puns to the extent of making one even in inappropriate situations, and is also super depressed but just doesn't show it. I guess you can say he's kinda like the Sans of the group. Oh yeah, he's also obsessed with Undertale.

I don't have a chance in hell with him though.

* * *

(Kojima's POV)

They poke and prod at her for a while, commenting on a few things while I sweat and just sit in this chair, probably biting my nails, and shaking like a leaf.

"Ah yes, Mr. Kojima if you could give us a moment, we will just be in the next room," one of the… proctors? (I have no idea what they are), says, as they and my professor quickly go into a tiny closet.

Persocoms are a pretty recent invention, probably around a year ago. I knew about them about a month before they were released, the Angelic Layer fad was coming to an end, but my friends and I played it... waaaaaaaaay back when they were first starting out. I actually got the nickname "Dragonfly" because my angel was in a red school-girl uniform, had wings, and was super fast.

 _*click!*_ The closet door opens and the proctors step out with concerned looks on their faces, mumbling among themselves.

"Kojima-kun!" Dr. Mihara exclaims, hurling over the judge's table (that they somehow aquired) and landing right in front of my face, "how do you feel about being my apprentice?"

I just blink at him, before shaking my head, "uh... can you say that again?"

"You heard me! I said, how do you feel about being my apprentice?"

I just stare at the lunatic in shock, "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!? YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!"

The doctor crosses his arms and stares me in the eye, "why of course I am, why wouldn't I be?"

"W-w-w-well because I'm a nobody!" I stammer, "I-I-I'm just a lowlife, lazy otaku, who's extremely introverted, the least formal, and not to mention I'm ga-" I stop in my tracks. No, nonononononono! I did NOT just tell the greatest mind of the 21st century that I'm... not straight right?

"Yes, and thats exactly the reason I choose you. I don't want somebody normal; that would be too boring." He says plainly, "so, will you be my apprentice or not? You have one minute to decide."

I look around the room nervously, "well... hell yeah I'll be yor apprentice!"

Ichiro smiles, "OGATA! CANCEL THE REST OF THE APPOINTMENTS!"

"But, Icchan! These students have been working on their persocoms for months! You can't jus-" Ichiro runs over to the other man and covers his mouth.

"It's that, or do one-hundred laps around the entirty of campus while ice continuously slides down your back!"

Ogata freezes, before dashing out of the room yelling about the abrupt cancellation.

"Well, now that, thats out of the way, lets make it official shall we?" Dr. Mihara stretches out his hand, and we shake on it. He turns and faces my persocom, "oh yeah, what might this pretty lady's name be?"

"Her name?" I repeat. _Shit! Totally forgot about that!,_ "Her name is... Tokyo... Rose. Tokyo Rose."

"Tokyo Rose huh? Hm, its strange, yet elegant and exotic."

"Anyways, I really should get going. I've got a tournament at Blitz and Chipz in a half hour." And with that, the doctor dashes out of the room.

I slowly creep out of there, with a blank expression on my face.

"What the hell was all that commotion about?" Ryoku asks.

I chuckle a little, "well, long story short I'm kinda his apprentice now."

My friends just stare at me for what seems like an eternity before Seiji roughly grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me, "HOLY FUCKING SHIT! Alright, we're going out tonight!"

* * *

Author's Note: Well, that was the first chapter. I know, my writing isn't as good as it once was, I haven't been writing that often. Just little bursts here and there.

So, if you are wondering why Seiji called Kojima "Small Island of Righteous Snow", well thats because, roughly thats what Kojima Yoshiyuki means.

This will be turning into an Undertale crossover.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2: Unnessisary Tension.

* * *

"Um, Dr. Mihara, I have to ask you something" Ogata begins, walking into the Doctor's laboratory; his footsteps echoing throughout the spacious room full of technological equipment.

"What is it this time?" Ichiro responds in an annoyed tone, "hurry up. I need to plan something."

"Well..." the assistant hesitates, "its about your apprentice..."

"He has a name you know? And what about him?"

"Well, why him? Why choose _him_ over all the rest of the more promising crowd? I mean you didn't even look at anybody else persocoms."

"What are you getting at Ogata?"

"All I'm asking is why. He crossplays, he's an otaku, he obviously has trust issues, he's autistic, lazy, charismatic, and not to mention his heart condition."

Ichiro smiles and turns aeound in his chair to face Ogata, "It's simple. He reminds me of my younger self before Angelic Layer took off. Sure, he has many shortcomings, and other issues. But thats what makes him interesting. Also, he has more potential than anyone else in my class. Way before the event was planned I had already decided on him. Any other details as to why are hard to explain..."

Ogata nods before turning around, "I understand. Oh yeah, you should also plan something for the other students, so that their work doesn't go to waste."

Dr. Mihara breathes out a sigh as the door finally closes.

 _If only I could tell you..._ He thinks to himself as the flesh on his body begins to quickly melt away, revealing gaping holes in his palms. His face cracks in two places, as his usual white lab coat and black scarf reverse into a white scarf and a black lab coat. _Time to go check on the timelines..._

* * *

 _(Seiji's POV)._

Well, almost immediately after the... convention... thing, we went home and changed into clothing that can only be classified as "nerd attire". No, not cosplay. We went and spent the day in Akihabara, and respectively wasted all of our rent money for this month... meh, our landlord probably won't mind... I hope.

So, appearently Umi ordered a custom, Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward Elric cloak for Kojima months ago. We went and picked it up and now he won't take it off... he's even sleeping in it right now.

We ended up staying there until 2 in the morning, not getting home until 3, and then everybody just dashed to the futons and crashed. Actually, I don't even think that we have our own respective futons., I'ts all just one big mess.

But now everybody is asleep... except for the guy with a big-time crush on Yuki.

I quickly glance at my phone to check the time.

"God damn it, its five already?" I sigh. I look over at Yuki. Yup, just laying there on his back with his right arm stown across the mess, and his left flopped against his neck.

"Hey, Dragonfly," I say without even thinking.

" _Hnh_?" He responds, "s _saaaage boiii...?_ " I roll my eyes. Okay, its obvious that he's sleep talking. Perfect, maybe if I can practice with him, without him knowing or remembering anything then maybe I can do it IRL later...

"...yup," I take in a deep breath before moving closer to him.

"d _oooo_ _you know where we put the figures we got?"_

"Yup, downstairs."

" _ok. good._ "

I take in a deep breath, "Hey, Snow. I've got something to tell you. It's urgent."

 _"what iz it?"_

I... uh... uhhhhhhhhhh..."

 _"juz hurry up and tell me already..."_

... this is a bad idea? Should I be doing this? Probably not... Fuck it. "...I'm... I'm... I'm in love with you!" I blurt out.

Kojima pauses, before he bursts out laughing, " _Oh my god! That has to be the best joke I've heard all night!_ "

" _You're joking right?"_

"...unfortunately not," I face palm, "Ugh! I knew this was a dumb idea!"

 _"no, no it wazn't. actually, on this topic... gah_ _never mind!"_

I can feel my heart pounding in my chest...

 _"fuck it. i'll tell you. might as well hop aboard the confession train, because truthfully i'm in love with you too."_

I just stare at him, "wait... are you _serious?_ "

 _"Seiji, I wouldn't joke about that. You know me ."_

He chuckles, " _god! Do you have any idea how long I've been hiding that from you? Ever since the twelfth grade!"_

"... well it's been that long for me too."

Yuki grins, " _hey, if you confront me about it tomorrow and I deny it, just letting you know that I'm probably just being tsundere. Well, g'night Sage boi..."_ and with that he stops talking, and flips to his other side.

"Yeah... night." _Oh my god. Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh. My. Gah! He can't be serious about it can he?! No... probably not. He was sleeptalking after all... I'll ask him about it tomorrow..._

* * *

 _(Kojima's POV)._

"Ah, shit! I've gotta go to work in ten minutes," I sigh, reluctantly saving my progress in _Zelda: Breath of The Wild_.

"RYOKU! WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT THESE DAMN FIDGET SPINNERS?!" I can hear Umi screaming at Ryoku again because he bought ten more fidget spinners last night.

I quickly pack everything into my shoulder bag.

"Well, I'm off."

"Hey! Yuki, I need to talk to you about something," Seiji says. I turn around to face him.

"Yeah, what is it?" I ask.

* * *

A/N: Well, I hope you like it, and I pray that it wasn't too cheesy. Also, I'd like to give a big shoutout to Lycoson, and his Chobits/Vocaloid crossover fic called Cybernetic Cabaret. It's easily one of the best fics I've read, and it deserves waaaaay more readers (Plus, its much better than mine).

Oh yeah! For thoses of you who aren't very well versed in Undertale, just look up Undertale Wikia.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3: Lovefool.

* * *

"Yeah, what is it?" I ask, turning around.

"Umm..." Seiji hesitates, looks away for a moment and sighs, "do you remember talking to me last night?"

I blink and stare at him with a blank look on my face, "Right before we all crashed because it was 2 AM yeah, what about it?"

"No, like while we were sleeping... you said something..."

I just stare at him before bursting out laughing, "you do realize that whenever I sleep-talk its all just nonsense right?" I walk over and I put my hands on Seiji's shoulders, "listen, whatever I said while I was sleeping I probably didn't mean alright? You know this."

I quickly back away, turning around and opening the door, and stepping out "Don't worry about it too much ok? Welp, gotta get to work."

* * *

Sleeptalking... psh... bullshit I have no idea what he's talking about I know exactly what he's talking about, I remember the entire conversation clearly.

I bash my fist against a nearby tree. Fuck! I thought that I was dreaming all of that up! Ugh, I'm such an idiot! I practically poured my heart out to him too! Unless I'm dreaming and it was a dream inside of a dream, which is extremely unlikely.

Suddenly, I can feel my phone vibrating in the pocket of my bunnyhug, interrupting my inner monologue.

"Hello?" I respond, putting the phone up close to my ear.

"Hey, Dragonfly."

"Umi? I'm literally 100 meters away from the house. What the hell are you calling me for?"

"Because I'm as lazy as you, and because at 11:30 PM tonight you, Ryoku, Seiji, and I are gong to be meeting in the nearby park in front of the big cherry tree and the swingset. See you then!" * _click!*_

 _11:30 PM in a park in front of a big cherry tree? What gives? Sakura season has been over for over a month now._ I shrug it off, _meh. It's Umi... I should be used to this already. Having lived with her the past six years of my life._

* * *

 _(Several hours later...)_

I arrive at the designated spot in front of the cherry tree around ten minutes early. Seiji has already beaten me to it.

"Hey, Yuki," he says.

"Sup?" I reply, as a wave of guilt washes over me as I hear his voice. I should've just told him the truth while I had the chance...

"Eh, not much. Just wondering why the hell Umi wanted us to all meet here. We all live together after all."

I chuckle and nod, "yeah! I mean what's up with that?"

"Just Umi being Umi I guess."

 _C'mon now you fucking idiot! Get your shit together and just tell him the truth! NOW!_

"H-hey Seiji, I've kinda got to clear something up with you," I begin, already regretting my decision.

"Hm? What is it?" he asks, turning his head towards me.

I gulp, "w-well... you know how this morning you asked if I remember 'sleeptalking' to you last night? and I said no?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"W-w-w-w-well I was lying! I was lying about npt remembering anything, and I was lying about how everything I said wasn't true!" I blurt out.

Seiji raises his eyebrow, "Koj, what are you getting at here?"

"What I'm getting at is that, I'm in love you Seiji! I always have! Ever since the twelfth grade I haven't been able to get you out of my mind! I've tried and distracted myself, but it never worked! You have no idea... I thought that I was dreaming up our conversation, but when you brought it up I paniced and said no," I exclaim, before realizing what I had just said and freezing in place.

"Kojima..."

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I just screwed everything up didn't I? God! I'm such and idiot! You probably hate m-"

Suddenly, I can feel Seiji yanking on mu shoulders and wrapping his arms around them, "just shut up, okay Yuki? You didn't screw anything up." he turns me around and looks me in the eyes, "god you're cute when you're all flustered like that."

I can feel myself blush as he places his fingers underneath my chin and lifts up m head. His other arm still embacing my right shoulder.

"The truth is I feel the exact same way as you. I always have," in an instant he tilts my head a bit higher, and his lips meet with mine.

My heart immediately starts pounding so hard and fast it's like I'm having a heart attack as I freeze up completely.

Seiji pulls away after at least thirty seconds, "oh! I'm sorry! That was a little sudden! I have no idea what got into me!"

"...Seiji, just shut up," I say, jumping up and returning the favour.

* * *

A/N: Well, I hope that wasn't too rushed and cheesy for you. Also, I can already hear your keyboards typing "Kojima's and Seiji's relationship was too rushed. There weren't any details and its only the third chapter", let me just stop you right there and say yeah, but there is a LOT of backstory covering these two that I'm planning on writing in the near future. I'm just messing with ya, but seriously there is a lot of backstory covering these two and their relationship, that I will be covering later on.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter.4: Yume no Kako

* * *

 _"hey dad! Can you please stop working for just a couple of hours and watch a movie with papyrus, undyne, alphys, and i?" a young voice asks, as a skeletal form tretches into his father's dark laboratory. His fingers wrapped around a_ _drawing that Papyrus has made._

 _"Not now Sans. I don't have the time," Gaster replies._

 _Sans huffs in annoyance, "you never have the time to do anything anymore. all you do is work on that stupid machine. papyrus drew you something and you won't even look at it!"_

 _"I'm sorry Sans, but it needs to be built as quickly as possible if we ever want any hope of crossing the barrier."_

 _"so, crossing the barrier is more important to you than your own family? god! we never see you anymore, all we have to eat is the stuff at grillby's, and i've been meaning to ask you something for a long time..."_

 _"Spit it out son."_

 _"who even is our mother?_ _i've never seen or even heard from her..."_

 _Gaster clenches his hands into fists before turning around and knocking Sans out of the room, "you'll know when you're older son... now, please leave."_

 _Sans looks at his father with disbelief in his eyes before yelling out "FINE! IF YOU HATE ME SO MUCH!" tears stream down the skelekid's face as he throws the paper into the room right before the doors slide shut._

 _'If only I could tell you the reason why our world is becoming darker, yet darker, and why it keeps on growing...' G_ _aster walks over and picks up the drawing as he begins to cry. It is rather messy, but he can barely make out Sans, Undyne, Alphys, Papyrus, and himself all gathered around the tv presumably watching anime._

 _"... I'm so sorry my sons..."_

* * *

Sans immediately wakes up and begins hyperventilating, his soul ultimately shaking. He looks around the dark, convinced that a reset has occurred, until his eyes settle on Frisk's sleeping figure.

"it... was *sigh*, just a dream after all." he says laying back down and holding the human to his side.

"Hmmmmmm, Sans? Izzat you?" they ask, turning around to greet the skeleton's eyes.

"yeah..." he replies.

"Why are you up already? We don't have to get up for another half hour."

"i just had a nightmare. don't worry about it too much kid."

"Was it about Gaster again?" they ask.

Sans hesitates before answering "...yeah..."

Frisk places their hand on Sans's and interlock their fingers together, "don't worry too much about it, he's been shattered across time and space, his current existance is rapidly disappearing. He can't hurt you. And if he tries too, I won't let him."

"But he might still be out there, maybe in another form. and... well I dunno, I have the feeling that he is still alive." he counters. Frisk sighs, he has a point.

"Even if he is, I won't let him hurt you." Frisk gives Sans a kiss before laying back down and pulling the covers over their shoulders, "let's get that last twenty minutes of sleep in. Especially you my sack of Lazybones."

"G'night kid."

"G'night Sans."

* * *

(Sans POV).

"GEEZ SANS!" is what papyrus greets me with as soon as I eventually crawl out of my room, "WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?"

"heh, you know me. i was just bone tired."

"UGH! REALLY SANS? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? THIS EARLY?"

"nope. i'm sans."

" _Oh Papy dear~ Is Sans bothering you again?"_ Mettaton asks, strolling into the kitchen. yup, just a regular morning here in our household. in any second undyne is going to be barging out of her bedroom door witha terrified alphys on her shoulder.

so, you, the person reading my mind or somethin'. ya, you! you're a human right? that's hilarious. the name's sans. sans the skeleton. well, i guess you probably already knew that didn't you?

it's been three years since Frisk shattered the barrier and let all of the monsters free from the underground, and things have gotten... well... interesting since then.

Frisk became the ambassador for humans and monsters. war almost broke out immediately, but they showed the humans the true nature of monsters and completely stopped the war. heh. they always were full of determination.

still... despite all of that, us monsters are still considered to be inferior; yeah, we have basic rights to own housing, land, and whatnot, but we still don't have proper insurance or healthcare, there is a lot of discrimination against us, and we aren't allowed to marry other humans, and humans cant marry us. it's a real bummer considering that frisk is 16 now, and i've been meaning to propose. but y'know, i don't really feel like arguing wih the legal system right now. unfortunealy that also means that toriel hasn't been able to leaglly adopt frisk yet. it's stll a work in process.

we all live in a small house in pheonix arizona. and by we i mean toriel, asgore, mettaton, papyrus, alphys, undyne, frisk and i all live together.

toriel has gotten a degree in academics and is now a school teacher.

asgore has become a professional gardener. those two have remarried.

undyne and alphys both work in a clinic for monster patients, and they do plan on getting married...eventually.

mettaton has become a popstar, and he's actually the reason why we were able to afford a house in the first place.

frisk is still the ambassador for monsters and humans, although Papyrus and i work along side them.

that is pretty much it for our lives these past few years. are ya satisfied now? ok good. because i'm too lazy to say anything else.

* * *

 _The room is completely dark and silent, except for the sound of a little girl weeping, waking up a small boy._

 _"Hmmmm?" he rubs his eyes and puts on his glasses before making his way down from the top bunk, "sis? Is everything alright?" he asks in a worried tone, as he grabs a nearby flashlight and turns it on._

 _"Don't look at me!" she snaps, knocking the light from her brother's hand, smashing the bulb in the process._

 _He immediately rushes over to her, "Sis! SIS! Please tell me what's wrong!"_

 _"No! You'll hate me forever if I do!"_

 _"No I won't! Something's clearly wrong, and you're freaking me out right now!"_

 _"Well you will be even more if you see me, so please don't look at m-" the brother grabs his sister and cradles her in his arms._

 _"You don't have to open your eyes, but I'm going to turn on the lights,"_

 _He reaches over and flips on the light. He can't see anything because of her long hair, but sweeps it away revealing purple scales covering half of her face, while the other side looks like regular skin, and her ears have been replaced by purple and green fins._

 _Mortified, he peels off her red sweater, just to see the purple scales, quickly taking over her arm._

 _"Oh my god..." he wipes the tears off of her eyes and pulls her closer, as she sobs into his green bunny hug, "shhhhhh...shhhhhhh... it's going to be okay,"_

 _She immediately recoils from his grasp "bro, why do you feel boney?"_

 _"Hm?" he gives his sister a confused look, "what do you mean?"_

 _"I mean you feel like a skeleton," she replies, finally opening her eyes, one of which is a bright yellow, and gasping._

 _"B-bro! You're a-a-a-a..." she can barely get the words out of her mouth. His flesh is peeling off from half of his face revealing a hard, wide dagger like shape with his teeth arranged into a jagged smile. His eyes black as night with a single glowing dot_

 _She swiftly unzips his hoodie and pulls off his shirt too see the left side of his ribcage revealed, and his entire left arm devoid of any flesh. In other words he is a skeleton whose head looks like a pointier, skinnier version of the Undertale Character Sans's._

 _"You're a skeleton!"_

 _"Sis. you're joking right?"_

 _"No! I'm serious!" she yanks on his hand and pulls him to a full-size mirror._

 _He looks at his own horrific reflection, as he slowly lifts up his boney hand to touch his face, before dropping to his knees, tears dripping down from his human eye._

 _The twin sister sits right next to her shocked brother, before finding themselves in a panicked embrace._

 _"Bro... what do you think that ths means?" she asks._

 _"I...I don't know, I don't fucking know, but no matter what. We can't tell anyone! Not even if they point a gun to our heads!"_

 _"Yeah... are we going to be okay?"_

 _"Yes, we are. As long as we have each other we'll always be safe."_

 _"I love you, Yoshi."_

 _"I love you too, Yume."_

* * *

A/N: Well, I hope that wasn't too confusing for you to read.


	6. Chapter 6

I immediately jolt awake, terrified that my true form has taken over my "human" body.

"Just a dream huh? Hmph I knew it," I say to the dark void in front of me.

I lazily stand up from the mess of futons and sleeping bodies on the floor before slowly stepping outside and climbing up a ladder onto the roof.

"It sure has been a while huh Onee-chan?" I ask, sitting down and looking up at the minimal stars Whose lights have been washed out by the light pollution of Tokyo, leaving only a faint twinkle behind.

"Y'know I've always wondered why you gave up your life to save mine…" I take off my shirt and slide my finger down the large vertical scar on my chest, letting the cool midnight air kiss my bare skin, "you were always the superior twin. You were smarter, more athletic, more sociable, more interesting. Then there was me… not to say that I'm ungrateful, but I just miss you, my other half essentially."

* * *

Seiji's POV.

He's been up there for about ten minutes now. I couldn't really sleep at all, damn insomnia. I just lay there for most of the night, so I saw him jolt awake, hyperventilating and talking to his late sister.

I slowly lift myself off of the floor, and I walk out the door before climbing up the ladder that leads up to the roof.

"Couldn't sleep again?" Yoshi asks, turning his head towards me as I unsteadily make my way down to his spot.

"Yup, damn insomnia again," I respond, rubbing one of my eyes, "did you see her again?"

He simply nods without any spoken word, opening his clenched fist, revealing a silver bracelet.

"Remember when we first got these bracelets, but then realized that we didn't have a picture?

"Oh yeah! And then literally one week later we went to Magical Mirai and went into a photo booth, and ultimately deciding that those pictures were the ones."

"Uh-huh. That was one of the best nights I had."

The bracelets have a silver chain with a silver, rectangular pendant in the middle that is clear in the centre save for a thin, golden infinity loop. Encased in the box is a picture of Yoshi, Yume, and I with our arms wrapped around each other's shoulder. We're covered in Miku merchandise and we have glow-in-the-dark Vocaloid-related doodles on our skin.

I look at my own and smile a bit, the picture is ever so slightly faded but other than that it is completely fine. We don't really wear them as bracelets anymore, but Kojima keeps his as a keychain and I bring mine around everywhere in .

"Hey, Yoshi you look like you're having a moment to yourself, so I'm going to leave you be," I say, but just as I stand up I can feel something yank on my arm.

"Hm? What is it?" I look back down only to see his pleading eyes meet mine. Tears are streaming down his face, and his breathing is shaky.

"Please...don't go…" he sniffs, wiping away his tears with his bare hand, "I...don't want to be alone…" Kojima turns his head away from me as I can see him clenching his teeth.

I sit back down and I pull him into a tight embrace, placing my head atop of his "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere."

"I...just want my other half back… I miss her so fucking much you have no idea!" He nuzzles further into the crevice of my neck, hiding his red, puffy eyes away from view.

"I know Yosh, I know. I miss her too. There's no need to hold back anything," I speak softly while gently rubbing his back.

"I'm sorry!" He sobs, clutching onto my shirt, "what's gotten over me…"

"No need to apologize."

"You and her were the most important people in my life… still are I guess; and even though she hasn't been here for five years I still can't imagine life without you two…" he takes in a deep breath, "that's why I'm so hesitant to date you. Because I'm scared that if we break up, that'll be the end of it."

"Is that what you're worried about?" I ask

"Yeah…" he responds.

"Hey, it's okay, it's okay. I feel the exact same way about you."

Yoshi lifts up his head and looks at me, "really?"

"Yup," I nod, "I love you way too much to ever let you go. Yes we will have fights, that's just a given at this point, but I'll never let go."

I look up at the dimly light stars in the night sky and smile a bit, "and I'll never say "goodbye" to you."

"I love you, Sage Boy," he says, laughing a bit. I roll my eyes

"I love you too, Small Island."

* * *

A/N: If you're a new reader and are confused on the sudden change in quality, that's because I'm rewriting chapters I feel need to be rewritten.


	7. Chapter 7

"...now if we go with Einstien's theory of relativity..." the professor at the front of the room drones on.

Three days until finals. That means pulling all nighters just trying to juggle with tweaking Tokyo Rose's programming so that there aren't any bugs or anything (I really should have thought of a better name for her), studying and experimenting, work, and on top of that all of the shit thats been going on concerning my love life, I'm barely going to be able to sleep more than three hours tops! Serves me right for choosing Computer Science as my major, with both Physics and chemistry as my minors.

Thankfully, prof Mihara had us write our finals a month ahead of the others.

"Kojima-san, are you paying attention?"

"Yup," I sigh, as a couple of student sitting near me give me a weird look.

"Alright, for your final I will have you write a thesis and then test it out to see if you're right, and to write in detail why it did/didn't work. You will also have a written exam following directly after you hand in your thesis."

The entire class groans.

"Seriously! That's way too much work for us!" some girl yells out.

"Well maybe you should've picked a better scientific field to study, physics is a very demanding type of science. Alright I'm done here, class dismissed!"

A massive sigh of relief is breathed out from the masses as the professor leaves.

"Hey Kotoko, did you get any of that?" I ask the minature persocom in front of me.

"Yup," she replies.

I stand up and yawn, "jeez, why am I so fucking tired all of the sudden? I went to sleep before 4 last night... I think anyways..."

Kotoko puts her head in the palm of her hand, "wow, you really are clueless when it comes to basic human needs aren't you?"

"What're you talking about Ko?" I say, quickly shoving my textbook into my shoulder bag and slinging the strap over my shoulder, "of course I do, I've been living as one for twenty years."

"Even so..." she quickly climbs onto my arm and sits on my shoulder.

Suddenly, my stomach growls almost as if on cue. That explains the wierd looks.

I sigh, "fine, you win this time Kotoko!" I quickly cross my arms in front of my body.

How long has it been since I've eaten anything? Yesterday I pretty much just relied on energy drinks alone, and the day before that I had the last pack of those panda cookies... yeesh! That's three days.

Meh, no matter though, I'm headed home anyways.

"So, physics and chemistry huh? And trying to get a doctorate in computer science? Seems pretty ambiguous Yoshiyuki," a pretty familiar and unexpected voice remarks.

 _Yoshiyuki? I haven't heard anyone above the age of thirty call me that in ages._

I shrug, "kind of, but exactly why are you here Dr. Mihara?"

"Oh c'mon, don't be so formal. Just call me Ichiro or Icchan! You let me call you by your first name, so I'm letting you call me by mine," he quickly shoves the random piece of paper in his hand into one of the pockets, "so tell me where is Tokyo Rose at?"

"She's at home, why do you ask?"

"Well, because I want to take a more in depth look at her if thats alright."

"Yeah, that's okay, but when exactly do you want to do it?"

"Today."

"Today?" I freeze. _Our house is a mess of Otaku and nerdy shit, sure! Come on down and see that I am not fit to be your apprentice!_

"What? is that a problem?" Ichiro asks.

"Nope, today is good!" _I'm totally not about to die of starvation anytime soon, and that sound you hear is TOTALLY not my stomach that_ _will not shut the fuck up._

"Ok, let's go! We'll pick her up, and head to my place!"

"But-"

he quickly interrupts me. "No buts! Let's go!"

* * *

"So..." Ichiro begins, "this is your house?"

"Yup." It's old and there are some holes in the roof, but it's something I guess.

"I'll go and get her, can you please stay outside? Sorry, our house is a huge mess right now."

"Sure, I don't mind."

I quickly make my way into the house, stepping over random objects that have been haphazardly thrown on the ground.

"Tokyo Rose!" I call.

"Yeah, Dragonfly?" she answers, quickly making her way up the stairs.

"Come with me, my professor wants to take a better look at you."

She nods and quickly grabs her purse off of a nearby table.

* * *

My jaw drops as soon as we arrive at the Prof's house. It's huge! Large windows surround its spherical shape. Along with many other details, it has an almost futuristic feel to it.

"So... this is your house?" I ask, adjusting my glasses which were dangerously close to falling off my face.

Ichiro gives me a look like I'm insane, "what? Oh no! This is simply a laboratory designed for individual research and creation. In fact, it actually belongs to the university. I just bought three of the spaces, one for me, one for my wife, and one I use for storage." He laughs, "I live in an apartment building."

He pulls out some sort of keycard and swipes it in a slot beside the door.

It takes approximately thirty seconds for the technology to register the input and lets us in.

The inside is dark and industrial. Cement floors and metal walls that are covered in a thin coat of what I think was supposed to be purple paint that's already starting to chip away. The lights are cheap and flouresent, they flicker and are just hung by a chain. There are a few plants that look ever so slightly wilted.

"I know, she's not much for first impressions, but trust me, the upper levels are much nicer." He explains, climbing into the elevator, "is it okay if we stop and say hi to my wife and daughter before we get started?"

I nod, "You have a daughter?"

"Yup, well she isn't exactly my biological daughter. Chitose can't have children of her own, so I built her one."

I quickly reply with an "mhmm" and I don't ask any questions.

Soon, the elevator stops and opens up.

He is right, it is much better. The floor to ceiling windows let in natural light, the floors are a soft linoleum, the walls are still metal and the plants look alive.

We stop in front of a door not too far from the elevator.

Ichiro knocks before swinging the door open yelling "HONEY! IM HOOOOOOO-OOOME!"

I can hear two female voices giggling.

"Yes, yes you are dear! Come in, come in!" Mihara steps in and gives his wife a kiss. She has stark black hair tied into a ponytail, her eyes are motherly and she is wearing a lab coat.

"Welcome home papa!" A little girl wearing black Lolita clothing and long ivory hair runs up to my professor and gives him a big hug. He picks her up and twirls around.

"I'm glad to be back, Freya." He gives her a warm smile which she immediately returns.

Freya turns her head towards me and points, "Papa, who is the strange man standing in the hallway?"

Being the socially inept introvert that I am, I of course panic and freeze.

His wife pokes her head out of the door, "oh! You must be Ichiro's apprentice that he is always talking about," she gestures for me to come inside.

"Uh... I guess?" I respond.

"Your name is Yoshiyuki Kojima right?" She asks, I nod, "my name is Chitose Hibiya, and this is our daughter Freya."

"Pleasure to meet you," I say, extending my hand out to her, which she excepts.

"Please, in this household we are not big fans of formality, call me Chitose. Is it okay if we call you Yoshiyuki?"

"Yup, that's fine."

"Yoshi...yuki?" Freya mutters.

I nod, "yup!" _Damn she is adorable!_

"Alright apprentice, TO THE LAB!" Ichiro almost runs into the wall beside the door before catching himself and just walking normally.

"Well, it was nice to meet you both, bye!" I say in a rush before running after my mentor.

* * *

3 hours later...

* * *

The prof ended up prodding at Tokyo Rose for two hours and asking me questions for the next half hour before he decided that I could go home.

It is now 6 PM and none of the douchebags I like to call my friends will be home for the next three hours. Perfect! Time to be antisocial and eat inhumane amounts of food while watching guilty pleasure anime and TV!

I open the door and I am immediately assaulted with the smell of oil and sugar. Ryoku must've taken time from work.

"Oh, hey man! You're home late," he greets. I kick off my shoes and I drop my bag. I make my way to the kitchen to see Ryoku in nothing but his underwear and an apron. Not the first time I've seen him this way.

"Whatcha making?" I ask, looking over his shoulder and peering at what I can only describe as the Eyeholes from Rick and Morty.

"Ugh, I have to make three fandom inspired desserts and present them as a three course meal for my final. So for the appetizers I'm making Eyehole donut holes." He picks one out of the bowl beside him and tosses it to me. "Try it, tell me what you think."

I quickly pop it into my mouth and give him a thumbs up, "Holy shit! These are good! Those judges better suit up because they will get beaten by the Eyehole man!"

We both laugh as he shuts off the stove and washes his hands, "How's your day been? Hopefully not as slaveworthy as mine."

"Ugh, work was... well work. I got two days off. Physics was a mess, I kept dosing off and I figured out that I haven't eaten anything in three days. So I was tired and delirious. Then my mentor pulled me away. Yours?"

"What you see. My prof gave us the assignment, and yeah, also finally you noticed! We were counting down the days until you realized!"

"Yeah, yeah I already know you guys are giant assholes."

"You wanna see how many of these we can fit into our mouths?" He asks, pointing down at the bowl of Eyeholes.

"Quit reading my mind!"

* * *

The other two show up between two hours and the Day proceeds as normal. Hell, while we were watching a movie, Seiji and I kind of cuddled.

* * *

A/N: so, i sure hope you like it. I'm sorry that I didn't update for the longest time. I was feeling stressed and I just really needed a break from everything. More frequent updates I promise!


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter.

* * *

I flip on my headphones as soon as I walk out of the testing hall. Finally! Finals are over! Physics screwed me up really good, I ended up pulling two all nighters in a row just trying to work on my thesis, study for the test, AND study for my chemistry exam.

The others are still writing theirs. Umi has her Psychology and Medical finals, Ryoku has his Culinary and Media Studies finals, and Seiji has his criminology, criminal justice, and forensics finals. Poor guy.

Umi and I both had the same chemistry class, so that was a plus.

But now, no one is going to be home, so that means I can finally relax.

There is a heavy pounding in my head, almost in sync with every footstep I take. I've been in my human form for far too long. Almost two weeks now. I can't let anyone see my true form, they'd most likely freak out or something. Not even Seiji knows.

Suddenly I can feel slight twitching on top of my head. Fuck! The transformation is already taking place!

Without even thinking, I sprint all the way back home. Not even thinking about what damage it might do.

* * *

My heart pounds in my chest as I hurry and shut the door behind me, immediately collapsing onto the floor, my head in a fog. I clutch my chest, hoping to slow my heartbeat down somehow.

Fucking heart problems. I can't run at all, well... I can sometimes, but for limited amounts of time. I had a heart transplant when I was fifteen, but it didn't fix everything. I still can't run for more than five minutes or even do anything strenuous without putting myself at risk for cardiac arrest.

I'm basically just a heart attack waiting to happen.

I slowly and shakily pick myself up off of the ground, just barely even to walk in a straight line as I head to the downstairs living room. The stairs thankfully are pretty shallow, and I just barely make it before falling onto the couch back first.

 _What time is it?_ I glance at my watch, _2:30, I still have about an hour before one of the others make it back, that should be enough..._ I feel the top of my head, touching two peaks. Its finally happening.

I begin to shake, and my limbs tingle. Ho boy, here it comes...

"HHHHHHAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" the final stretch is excruciatingly painful, but the relief afterwards is incredible.

"Did it work?" I look down at my paws, twitching my ears, and flicking my tail. Yup, it did. With a sigh of relief, I flop back down onto the couch, the small bell choker tinkling with my movements.

In case whoever the hell is reading my thoughts right now has no idea whats going on, trust me, I don't either. I never really have to be honest. I'm some-sort of half-human, half-monster abomination. Do I have "magic" or whatever? No, all I can do is turn into real Neko.

Yup, that's right, I'm an anthropomorphic cat in my monster form. I still wear regular clothes in this body and everything as a regular human would. The fur is the exact same colour as my hair, dark chocolate brown. Which, now that I think about it, Umi once thought it was chocolate when she came home drunk off her ass .

But, I'm getting off topic here.

Why I had dreamed that I was a skeleton like Sans, and Yume was a fish-like monster like Undyne, I have no clue. We are both, I don't know what to call it... cat... people? Furries?

Who am I kidding? I'm not anything important, I'm just a freak of nature... if you can even call it nature at all.

I know other monsters exist, a couple of years ago it was broadcasted all over the world that they escaped. No, Sans, Frisk, Papyrus, Undyne, and that entire crew don't really exist... unfortunately.

I bat at the remote, resting it in my paws and messily scrolling through Netflix.

Ugh, I can't ponder on this for too long, it's giving me a headache.

Now, get out of my brain will you?

* * *

One hour later...

* * *

"Oh my god! Are you fucking kidding me right now? Really Tammy?" I yell at the TV screen in front of me. I've seen 'The Wedding Squanchers' over fifty times, and it still pisses me off.

* _Click*_ I immediately tense up as I hear the front door squeak open and someone steps inside.

 _Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!_ Panic Mode has initiated. I painfully revert to my human form as fast as I can. I look down at my right hand. it still hasn't changed at all...

I hide it behind my back, and quickly head back upstairs to see who is home.

"ALRIGHT KOJIMA! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?" Ryoku yells, stomping into the house. I roll my eyes. Here we go again...

"Somewhere in this known universe and totally not right in front of you in plain sight," I reply sarcastically, crossing my arms.

He dramatically turns his head towards me and points accusingly, "YOU!" he walks towards me, his finger hovering just centimeters before my face, "HOW ARE YOU DONE WRITING YOUR FINALS SO EARLY?!"

I shrug, stifling a laugh, "I dunno, maybe its just because I'm smarter than you."

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY?!" he snatches a random red rag off of the counter and ties it around his forehead.

"Oh, you wanna go huh Rumble Mcskirmish?" I taunt, grabbing a nearby Naruto headband.

Suddenly, we both turn our heads to the sound of the door clicking open and two figures stepping inside.

Umi and Seiji just stare at us with a confused look.

"Let me guess... one of you got here before the other and now its a free for all?" Umi guesses.

"Pretty much," Ryoku says.

Seiji rubs his hands together, "I want in!"

"Grab a headband then."

"Way ahead of you," Seiji soon joins our circle.

Umi facepalms, "I swear, I live with a bunch of crazy people," she quickly ties on a headband of her own, "AND ITS AWESOME!"


	9. Chapter 9

"Guys, guys, guysguysguysguysguys!" Umi bursts through the door, frantically waving a flyer in her hands, "guysguysguysguysguysguyguygusygsuhsyu!"

"Woah! Calm your shit!" Kojima says, reluctantly getting out of his comfy spot on the couch and clasps his hand against her mouth, "alright, slow down! What's happening?"

"This better be an emergency! Because Sage Boi and I are in a heated match of Mario Kart!" Ryoku yells, which is then followed by the sound of someone getting knocked to the ground.

"Dragonfly! Let go of the lady!" Seiji runs up the stairs, making a fake gun with his fingers and pointing it menacingly at Kojima.

He immediately lets go of Umi and puts his hands up in the air, as the aspiring detective then points his finger guns at the teal-haired girl, "you, speak!"

"Not until Ryoku gets up here," Umi crosses her arms in front of her and stares Seji dead in the eyes.

"Ryoku, get your ass over here!" he yells, dramatically rolling his eyes. Ryoku lets out a loud, exasperated groan as he rushes up the stairs and joins the group.

"Alright, so basically whats happening is the rivalry between our left side, and the right side has escalated. Tonight there will be a party war. Whoever wins the First day Off party of the year wins bragging rights and the Trophy, its getting held at the College Convention Center tonight starting at 10. The band and I will be playing from 1 am to 3 am." Umi explains, the guys nod their heads.

"Oh, oh, ohhhhhhhhhhhh!" Ryoku immediately rushes to the door and yanks it open, "YOU ARE SO ON RIGHITES!" he shouts, before immediately slamming the door.

"Nerds against the jocks," a mischievous grin crosses Seiji's face, "I think we all know who is going to win."

"We are going to get so wasted aren't we?" Kojima sighs, "welp, bye bye social status."

"Oh, come on! Loosen up Dragonfly!," Umi says, smacking him on the back, "You haven't loosened up in a month. This will be fun, don't worry!"

Dragonfly gives her a small smile and nods.

"Okay good! Everyone be ready in an hour."

"Why the fuck not? I'm about to die anyways..." he mutters to himself, before he disappears into his room, and removes an electronic device attached to his chest.

"Kotoko, cord." he says.

"Are you still paranoid?" she asks, passing him her HDMI cord. He says nothing as the monitor springs back to life, displaying some sort of countdown, with each and every factor at play.

"Nope, because now I know."

* * *

Excuse me, Just Umi jumping in to let you know somethings. First off, the "College Convention Center" is just a fancy name for the biggest house on the left side of campus. This rivalry between the two sides is a classic Nerds vs. Jocks battle. The right side being the Jocks, and the left side being...well the Nerds. Okay, explanation over.

* * *

Umi's P.O.V

* * *

"OKAY! UMI QUIT HOGGING THE TOWELS! I LITERALLY HAVE TO USE MY SHIRT TO DRY OFF BECAUSE OF YOU!" Seiji yells.

"What're you talking about?" I ask, whilst wearing seven towels despite barely using the shower.

"Guys, I just realized that sweaters are just blankets that are designed for you to wear," Ryoku mumbles with a dazed look on his face.

"RYOKU QUIT MAKING ME QUESTION MY EXISTENCE!" Kojima shouts, rushing upstairs in nothing but his underwear and yanks two towels off of my body.

"Did you seriously just come upstairs to do that?" I ask, "also, don't you do that everyday?"

"Shut up!" he responds, once again disappearing into the basement. I raise an eyebrow and look at my brother.

"He's been acting weird lately," I comment.

"Tell me about it," Ryoku says, "he's quieter, more short tempered and snappy than usual, and he's been doing this thing where he randomly touches the top of his head."

"You're observant."

"Sea, we've known him for ten years."

"Did you just make a pun?"

"Nope!" He gets up from his spot on the couch, "anyways, we should be getting ready."

"Yup..." I sigh.

* * *

About an hour later, we are all ready. Took Yuki and Seiji literally five minutes, took me half an hour, and took my brother forty five minutes. No wonder every one thinks he is gay.

"Okay! everybody ready?" I call.

"I am, dunno about the other two," Ryoku responds, and out of the corner of my eye I can see the silhouette of two figures sharing a kiss and a tender moment. I smirk. Totally called it with those two! No I didn't "set them up"... okay maybe I did. I was there, I was just hiding in some bushes nearby, watching the whole scene. Now, I catch them cuddling on the couch whenever we're watching anime, and slightly holding hands. My ship name for those two is Seijiyuki... I know I'm terrible.

"Yup, we're ready!" Kojima is wearing an open black button up shirt, with a white T-shirt with the Fullmetal Alchemist logo on it, and jeans that are slightly ripped at the knees. Seiji is wearing pretty much the exact same thing, only with a black Death Note t-shirt, and no flannel.

Ryoku is wearing a grey and orange muscle shirt with blue swimming trunks, and his hair is immaculate with a deadpool trucker hat.

As for me... Oh shit! Don't have the time!

"Alright! Let's go!" I swing the front door open.

"WE'RE GONNA GET RICKITY RICKITY WREEEEECKED SON!" Kojima yells in the voice of Rick Sanchez.

"Were'nt you just bitching about that?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeesh! Could you get any nerdier?" Seiji laughs.

"Is that a challenge?"

* * *

We arrive at the CCC in about ten minutes, and by this time about fifty people have shown up. There is a stage in the middle of the room with a microphone, drums and a keyboard.

"Yo Dragonfly, your dancing skills ready for the stage?" I jab.

He laughs pitifully, "no, but get me drunk enough and I'll think so. Now where's the bar?" He wonders off.

A lady dressed in a completely Holographic outfit gets up on stage and turns on the mic.

"Allllright people! Whose ready for the Lip sync challenge!" The entire household erupts in cheer. The Lip Sync challenge is something Natsuki, the girl who lives here, invented. Basically five songs are chosen a week in advance, along with three band members. And I kind of signed the guys up for The Wolf he he... I am a terrible friend...

"You all know the rules! There is one judge from each house, and they will decide on which group gave the best performance. and whomever wins, get their performance put in the Hall of Kings!" she raises up her arm, and in her hand are five envelopes, "now we shall choose the first performance!" the entire audience waits in anticipation as Natsuki picks one of them and opens it, "Okay, the first song shall be Last Friday Night by Katy Perry, preformed by the House of Warcraft!"

The entire house cheers as they emerge onto the stage and immediately begin lip syncing and dancing to the song.

Ryoku glares at Kojima, who is currently bopping his head to the beat.

"Oof, someone is salty that they aren't playing Taylor Shit!" he says, taking a swing from his red solo cup.

Little known fact about these two, is that they are part of the rivalry between Katy Perry, and Taylor Swift. Kojima, is on Katy Perry's side, and Ryoku is on Taylor Swift's side.

* * *

Three songs later...

* * *

We're about fifteen minutes into the challenge, about 100 more people showed up and so far the groups have "sang" Last Friday Night by Katy Perry (obviously), Ode to the Bouncer, by the Studio Killers, and Feel Good Inc, by Gorillaz. Now it's time for ma Boyz.

"Alright people!" Natsuki climbs on stage carrying a singular envelope, and again people look on in anticipation, "and the next song is The Wolf by SIAMES, being preformed by The Otaku House!"

Dragonfly immediately spits out his drink, as the other two just look on in disbelief.

"Umi! What the hell!?" Seiji whispers in an exasperated tone.

"You should be thanking me," I take off my Marceline axe guitar and sling it onto Kojima's body, "now get your asses onto that stage!"

The three sigh and dash onto the stage, Seiji taking to the keyboards, Ryoku to the drums, and Koj as lead singer. I can see a nervous look in their eyes, so I give them a thumbs up, and hope that they don't screw this up.

The opening notes start up as they begin to play along to the song. The first verse is fairly calm, but as soon as the chorus starts to play, there is a completely different atmosphere, as Kojima gets this crazy but desperate look in his eye, as he bangs his head and dances along with a whole new emotion.

"I'm outta my head!" he points to his head.

"Of my heart!" he points to his heart,

"And my mind!" He then grabs a bit of his hair and shakes his head in a circular motion.

"Cause you can run but you can't hide! I'm gonna make you mine!" He reaches out into the crowed with his hand pointing to them, and bringing it back. He does much of the same thing for the rest of the chorus, but in the last line he reaches out to the sky and brings it down to his chest.

The second verse and chorus is preformed with more passion and craze than the last, and during a long stretch where they repeat the first few lines of the chorus, Sage Boi, and Ryo end up doing the motions with him.

But... the last chorus, ho man did they go insane, their movements had exaggerated emotion, and during the last line, Kojima drops onto his knees and gets back up slowly.

The crowd bursts into applause like usual after every "performance" and the trio hurry off of the stage, clearly out of breath.

"Holy shit!" is all I can say to them.

* * *

A/N: Whew... okay. Hey, hi I'm back. There are many reasons why I was on hiatus that I won't get into here. You may have noticed how crappy my writing is, and that is because I haven't really been writing these past few months, but I will be posting more frequent updates. So again, sorry about the quality.


	10. Chapter 10

Almost immediately after the performance Kojima made a beeline for the bar and downed a drink. _How can I 'loosen up' when I'm about to die?_ He thinks _I haven't even told Seiji yet. I mean what am supposed to say? He's been my best friend ever since we were four. Oh hey, my heart's been acting up I might die from cardiac arrest, see ya? Sigh..._

"Yooooooooooo, that is like your third or fourth drink tonight!" Ryoku saunters over, knocking Kojima out of his trance.

"Yeah, that's a lot... For a lightweight like you," he retorts.

"Oh snap!" Natsuki (the girl dressed in complete holo) says, "Ryoku you just got burned!"

"Yeah, yeah."

* * *

Excuse me, hello, hi, hows it goin? Just the invisible narrator telling you that I am skipping about an hour into the party because the author told me that this bit is giving him Writer's Block. Okay bye.

* * *

One hour later...

* * *

"Holy shit! Holy shit!" some random guy rushes into the living room holding up several bottles of god knows what, and waving them around, "GUYS I JUST FOUND A BUNCH OF ACETONE, HYDROGEN PEROXIDE, AND SOME RANDOM SHIT! WHO WANTS TO MIX EM UP AND DO SOME DRUNK SCIENCE!"

"OH FUCK YEAH BABY!" Kojima yells, immediately running up to the guy, holding a container of Persocom oil, "LETS MIX THIS IN THERE AND CREATE A FUCKIN' EXPLOSION!

"Wait, wait, wait guys!" A girl with brown, low-hanging pigtails walks into the room with a look of disapproval on her face.

"Oh c'mon Misaki! Let us have a little fun here!" Dragonfly sighs.

"What? No guys! I was saying that we should add THIS!" she holds up a bottle of dishwasher fluid triumphantly, kind of like that iconic pose from Zelda, "to the concoction!"

"Woah... dude..." the random dude just stares at her in astonishment, while Kojima rushes up to her and drunkenly puts his arm around her shoulders.

"Y-y'know I always thought that you were a pretentious brat, but now you are super cool!" he exclaims.

"Oh my god! I thought that you were just an emotionless dick! But I've changed my mind!" Misaki says, drunkenly returning the gesture.

"Hold up guys!" Umi then marches into the room holding not one, but two bottles of hair gel, "I just found these in my brother's bag, howzabout we mix them in there too!"

The entire room cheers, and Random dude fetches a bucket to conduct the experiment in.

"NOW WHO IS READY TO CONDUCT SOME DRUNK SCIENCE!" he yells, as the room cheers even louder.

"Eh, heheheheheheheh, no you are not!" Natsuki waltzes into the living room and takes away the bucket, "this is MY house, and there will be no explosions!"

The entire room groans, with choruses of "what? why not!" and "Oh come on!"

"Because, I don't want to be held accountable for any damage!"

"Way to kill the mood, Nat!" Kojima groans, finishing off his seventh drink.

"Woah there Yuki, slow down on the booze eh?" Umi says, intervening.

"I'll be fine, I've pretty much got an iron stomach, I can handle it" he then wonders out of the room.

"Yeah, your stomach'll be fine, but you're gonna have one hell of a migraine tomorrow," Umi mutters under her breath.

* * *

12:45 A.M

* * *

"IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII'MM GONNA SWIIIING FROM THE CHANDELI-HEEEER!" Ryoku tightens his grip on the piece of rope hanging from the ceiling, and takes a leaping jump off of the stage, swinging back and fourth from each end of the rope. He is probably the drunkest out of the group, and he for some reason thinks that its a drinking competition between him and Kojima...

For some context, someone decided that it would be a great idea to hang a piece of rope from a hook in the ceiling and to have people jump off of the stage and swing around on it... yeah this is what happens when you get some physics nerds drunk...

"Psh, people are idiots sometimes..." Umi laughs, as she quickly dodges Ryoku's flying shoe.

"Tell me about it," one of her band mates buts in.

"Okay, okay everyone off of the stage! We've got to let the band prep!" the lead singer shouts. Ryoku jumps off of the rope, ultimately falling square on his ass.

"That...was...AWESOME!" he pants.

"Hey dumbass brother, lay off the booze!" Umi orders.

Soon, there is a large CRASH as Seiji and Natsuki come running out of her room, "MAKE WAY FOR THE WIZARD!" she hollers, grabbing Kojima's attention, who is currently doodling something on the wall, and can barely believe his eyes. Seiji is wearing a grey bed sheet wrapped around his body like a tunic, with a long fake beard, and a witches hat.

"What the fuck are you wearing babe?" he snickers, not realizing his little slip up.

"I AM GANDALF THE GREAT!" Seiji exclaims, before running outside.

"This I gotta see!" Kojima quickly finishes his drink and follows a group outside, where Seiji is currently standing in the middle of the side walk with a long stick planted at his feet. Quickly seizing his opportunity for some high quality blackmail, Dragonfly whips out his phone to capture the entirety of the moment.

It doesn't take long for another group of people to cross that sidewalk, obviously confused by the strange guy in front of them, they stop in their tracks.

Seiji firmly bangs his "staff" on the ground and yells, "YOU SHALL NOT PAAAAAASS!" before bursting into laughter and rushing back inside.

"Perfect!" Kojima smirks, turning off his phone and hastily shoving it in his pocket, "Yo Sage Boi, wait up!"

* * *

1:30 A.M

* * *

At this point in the night, the drinking has slowed down by a bit, and everybody is just dancing as Umi and her band play covers of both obscure, and hit songs.

"Hey, hey Seiiiiiiji," Kojma slurs, wondering over to his equally drunk boyfriend and putting a hand on his shoulder, "I got somethin' to tell ya,"

"What is it?" he asks.

"Okay, so..." Kojima trails off laughing before regaining his train of thought, "This, this might sound crazy, buuuuuut I'mma tell you anyways. Um, I'm about to die, in about two days.

"Pssshhh, no you're not! You're jus overthinkin things again," Seiji laughs.

"No, no, like seriously I've been having problems, like I've been tired, and my heart just feels... wrong? I have no clue, buuuut, I've got a countdown on my computer with every factor at hand, and it's pretty accurate."

"Shut up man! You're just actin' crazy right now!"

"Well so are you."

"True dat."

* * *

A/N: So I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. Sorry if it was cringy and all over the place! I was just kind of having fun with this one lol.


	11. Chapter 11

3:30 am, right after the party on the way home.

* * *

"Aaaahhhhh c'mon siiiiiiiiiiiiiis! Why'd we have to leave eaaaaaaarrrly?" Ryoku slurs, as he is barely being held up by Kojima, Seiji, and Umi.

"Weeeeellll, for starters you're drunk as fuck!" Kojima points out, taking one last swig of a drink before mindlessly tossing it behind his back.

"Yeah, that's a big SAYS YOU right there Yosh!" Seiji yells.

"Psh, more like a says both of you. You two had more to drink than he did! It's not my fault that my brother is such a lightweight that he ended up barfing all over the floor," Umi retorts, hoisting her brother higher up on her shoulders.

"Whaaaaaaaaat? What-what-what're you talking about? I didn't do thaaaat! Ha Ha!" Ryoku can barely pronounce his words properly anymore. He might as well have liquor running through his veins than blood.

"Case in point." Umi sighs.

"Yeesh, is it even possible to have such a bad stutter that it rivals that of Kojima's when he was a kid?" Seiji snickers, knowing full well the consequences of his words. Kojima narrows his eyes at him and punches his boyfriend as hard as he can with his free hand, which mind you isn't very hard at all, more like a tap.

"If this drunk-ass dipshit weren't on my back I would, I would, I would punch you so hard right now." This in turn just makes Seiji laugh even harder.

"Th-that j-j-just-just proved myyyyy, point sucker!"

"N-now look who's talking!"

"Hey guys," Umi buts in, knowing full well that they are too drunk to remember anything, "are you two dating or what?"

Seiji and Kojima look at each other before bursting out laughing, "Well no shit Sherlock! Of course we are!" they say in unison, "we're so bad at hiding it, it's borderline pathetic!"

"AHA! I KNEW IT!" Umi yells out, waving her fist in the air like a champion before quickly realizing that Ryoku is quickly slipping off of her back, "are you guys even going to remember telling me?"

"Knowing this guy probably not," they both say, pointing at each other.

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyy, guuuuuuuuyyyyyysss... ummmm, b-b-burger nuggets!" Ryoku randomly slurs.

"Yeah, we better hurry this guy home before anything else happens," Umi sighs once again.

* * *

The Morning After: Kojima's POV.

* * *

"Hmmmmm..." _So retched human body, what do you have in stock for me after last night?_ My eyes slowly open, but as soon as the light hits them, the light feels like a laser beam that is specifically aimed toward the two organic balls encased by my face and they immediately snap closed. _Sigh... So the migraine route this time huh?_

I extend one of my arms outward and feel around slightly with my hand. The bumpy, smooth, kinda wet surface indicates that I am touching a face, although I am not sure whose... Wait, there is a line of skin in between two patches of fuzziness. _Yup this is Sage Boi_. I retract my arm and I plant my face into what seems to be a pillow, although I am not exactly sure, in order to block any light that might reach my pathetic eyes.

I stay in this position for a good half hour, before finally getting up.

"Ugh, feels like Goku and Naruto fused together and then went Super Saiyan and went Kamekameha and Rasengan on my brain," I groan to myself, whilst shakily making my way to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and taking two aspirin.

"So, looks like you finally woke up huh?" Umi says, just the sound of her voice is making my head pound even harder, Well any sound is, not just specifically hers.

"Just... sh-shut up! Head... Hurts..." I shush, making my way downstairs to my "mini-lab", shutting the door, placing sound barriers, putting up a poster on the window, and shutting off the light. _This is the only way for this fuckin migraine to go away, with no sensory stimuli whatsoever._

 _Ugh, even just thinking hurts, I wish that I could just shut off my brain for a while... go away for now..._

* * *

Two hours later...

* * *

I emerge out of my room after god knows how long, with my headache almost completely gone. _Finally!_

I make my way upstairs, to see almost everyone slumped on some kind of furniture. Yup, typical. Seiji is too tired to move much, Umi is downstairs in her room, and Ryoku is asleep cradling what looks like a trash can.

"Hm, looks like you're ready to run a marathon," I say sarcastically to Seiji, lightly touching his shoulder.

"Yup! Ready to just go outside and fuckin take on a world record in energizabilty," he replies with just as much sarcasm. He peeks open an eye to look at me, "lemme guess, you took two aspirin and locked yourself away from any and all stimuli in your 'lab' right?"

"No, I was out at a loud metal concert with flashing lights. Of course I locked myself in there you idiot!"

He chuckles, "yup, as I expected."

"H-hey guys? Can you guys shut up please? I'm trying to sleep off this hangover..." Ryoku mumbles miserably.

"Okay lightweight. Hope you learned not to try and copy our drinking speeds," I tease.

"Just-just shut up already Dragonfly..." Ryoku mutters.

I laugh a little. "Okay Lightweight."

"Is that his new nickname or something?" Seiji asks, sitting up and suddenly kissing me on the cheek.

"Y-yeah I guess so heh heh," I stutter, blushing a bit and returning the favor

* * *

That is basically how the entire day goes, everybody recovers and all is back to normal. I've been meaning to tell Seiji about what might happen to me tomorrow, but every chance I get, I blank. _Sigh_ , I guess I'll just write a note and leave it on my desk...

* * *

The Next Day...

* * *

"YOSHIYUKI KOJIMA GET OFF YOUR ASS AND GET READY!" Umi yells at the top of her lungs.

"DUDE! I'VE BEEN READY FOR AN HOUR! IT'S YOU WHO NEEDS TO HURRY UP!" I holler back, rolling my eyes. Somehow she convinced me to go out shopping with her. Not like I really need anything, just more cake and a new phone charger.

"Okay, whew that should be good," I say to myself, looking over the note. I sigh, _dick move I know, but I can't bring myself to say it to his face like that... I'm just too weak...  
_

"KOJI-" Umi starts to yell again, but I cut her off.

"I'M COMING! CALM YOUR SHIT!" I place the note in-between the keys on my keyboard, and I grab my bag before running upstairs.

"Heh, sooooo looks like you do go out. Wow who would've guessed," Seiji snickers, blocking my way.

"Psh, says you Mr. I'm going to stay inside and play Mario Kart," I retort, poking him in the chest. My smile quickly fades, _that's right..._ "Hey love..."

"Hm? Yeah what is it?"

I pull him into a deep kiss on the lips, wrapping my arms around him, "If I don't come back, there is a note in my keyboard for you."

"Huh? What's going on?" He asks, as I pull away.

"I love you my love!" I say with a wink, avoiding his question and waltzing right up the stairs, just to be greeted by a very annoyed Umi tapping her foot.

"Pfffffft! Ha! What in the actual hell are you wearing!?"I burst out laughing upon seeing her. She has temporarily died her hair purple with a spray colour, and her bangs have been sculpted to resemble a unicorn horn on her forehead. She is also wearing a Yuri! On Ice t-shirt with a bubblegum pink miniskirt, one blue-and-black stripped thigh-high sock, one knee-high pink sock, and purple shoes. Not to mention she is covered in glitter.

"Haven't you ever heard of Fairy Kei? Now c'mon! I've got shit to do!" Umi says, grabbing her holographic purse in the shape of Hello Kitty and opening the door.

"Of course I've heard of Fairy Kei ya dumbass, I'm just saying that you look ridiculous."

"You look ridiculous Mr Same jeans, same flannel, overfull messenger bag, same headphones, different t nerdy t shirt!"

"Guys! Stop the arguing over clothes like some Highschool girls," Kotoko deadpans.

"As the Queen orders," I say, gesturing at Kotoko who is currently perched on top of my head. Umi rolls her eyes jokingly

"Yes your Majesty."

"Her Majesty is not impressed," I say in a faux British accent. This in turn just causes Umi to roll her eyes once again.

"Just, please! Do that, just don't start with the puns!" She snaps. A sinister grin makes it's way across my face as I snicker.

"Oh god! No!" Umi says in terror.

"Why not? It's not like I'm PUNching people in the face, is it just that much of a PUNishment for you? Or does it make me seem like a PUNk?" I immediately burst out laughing as I watch Umi's facial expression turn from neutral to full on cringe!

"UGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH! I REGRET EVEN TAKING YOU AT ALL!" she practically screams.

"Gottem!" I say victoriously, as I fist-bump Kotoko.

* * *

Five Hours Later...

* * *

"...and that's why I think that Haikyuu..." Umi rambles on nonsensically about some sports anime. To be honest my brain just kind of cut her voice out a while ago. All day I've been feeling a bit dizzy and tired, my head is constantly spinning around and around in circles.

"Hey! Dragonfly!" Umi hits the back of my arm, breaking me out of my trance, "you feelin' okay? You seem kind of tired."

"What? Oh no, I'm fine," I say, dismissively flapping my hand" "just a bit tired. That's all! Nothing is going on at alllllll."

Kotoko raises an eyebrow, "Master, are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm fine!" I snap. Suddenly I can feel my heart flutter and then skip a few beats, and I can faintly hear a _Beep!beep!Beep! Beep!Beep!Beep_ coming from somewhere in my pockets. I know exactly whats happening... that.

 _Uh-oh... already? But I haven't even said "goodbye" yet..._ I can't tell if things are slowing down or speeding up, and I can see a bright light off on the distance. S _o this is when and where I die huh world? Wow world, I expected more from you._ I can't concentrate on anything that is going on around me, I can't even tell if I am falling, I think so.

But despite all of this, I feel strangely at peace. _I love you Seiji, more than you ever knew._ I slowly close my eyes, _Yumeyuki, I'll see you soon..._

And with that, the world completely cuts out and goes black.

* * *

"Kojima! Are you okay?" Umi repeats, noticing the science prodigy's sluggish movements, but as soon as she says those words, his eyes close and he collapses to the ground in an instant. He starts twitching sparatically and his breathing becomes jagged. She clasps her hands to her mouth, as her eyes open wide in complete shock as he suddenly stops.

"M-Master?" Kotoko says in a soft voice as she gets up from the ground and walks over to her unconscious master cautiously. "Master? Please tell me that you are awake..." Her voice cracks as she moves down to his neck, only to feel no pulse. "MASTER!"

Seemingly the entire street stops and upon hearing the tiny pained voice call out.

"SOMEBODY! CALL AN AMBULANCE!" someone yells, bringing Umi back to life.

Her eyes scatter across the scene, and she immediately runs over to Kojima's side.

"Kotoko!" she hollers, trying to get the tiny com's attention, "does he have a pulse?"

Kotoko looks up at her with tears in her eyes and shakes her head.

"Oh shit!" Umi collapses to her knees and starts assessing him, "he needs CPR!" thankfully, because she is currently in Medical School, Umi knows how to preform CPR. She climbs overtop of Kojima and starts pressing her palms to his chest. Soon after, the ambulance arrives and takes away his body, Kotoko still clinging onto his currently lifeless form.

* * *

"Oh come on Ryoku!" Seiji grits his teeth, as he loses the 39th match of Rainbow Road to Ryoku, who currently has a huge grin plastered onto his face, "I demand a rematch!"

"Psh, not until you don't suck at this!" Ryoku says plainly, taking a gulp of his pop and setting it back down onto the junk food-riddled table in front of them.

Seiji glares intensely at the video game addict. "I'll show y-" he begins to threaten, but is soon interrupted by the ringing pf his cellphone. "Umi? Hold on, let me take this."

"Faking a call to avoid getting you ass kicked?" Ryoku retorts, "NOOOOOOOOOOOB ALEEEEEEERRRRT!"

"Yeah fuck off!" he answers the call and presses it up to his ear, "Umi, what's so important that you need to interrupt me kicking ass at Mario Kart?"

The line on the other end goes silent for a solid minute, before he can hear Umi say in a choked voice, "It's Kojima, he... he fell into sudden cardiac arrest when we were walking on the street."

Upon hearing that statement, Seiji can feel his heart plummet to the very pit of his stomach, "th-this is a joke right? H-he's fine, you guys are just pulling a prank right? You guys only call me to talk to both Ryoku and I..." he stutters, as tears stream from his eyes.

Umi takes in a deep breath, "no, I'm not. You know that I wouldn't joke around like that... anyways he is in critical condition, you guys should get over here, fast!" and with that, she hangs up.

Seiji shakily lowers his phone down from his ear and says nothing.

"Yo, Sage Boi what did sh-" Ryoku begins to say.

"JUST SHUT UP OKAY!?" Seiji lashes out with tears in his eyes. Ryoku is clearly taken aback, he's never seen Seiji react so strongly to something. _Sudden cardiac arrest? Are you kidding me Yosh!? Why didn't you tell me... unless._ Seiji gasps and immediately runs to Kojima's mini-lab, _that's right! the note!_ he swings open the door with such force that it crashes against the wall leaving a dent, and lo and behold, the note is sitting right there, inbetween the keys of his keyboard. Seiji gingerly grabs the note, carefully opens the note and starts reading. It's in Kojima's illegible chicken scratch, so he knows its sincere.

 _Seiji,_

 _I'm sorry that I couldn't tell you sooner, I really tried but the words couldn't come out. I think that I told you at the party, but we drank so much that I forget if I did or not. Chances are, if you are reading this I am probably dead..._

* * *

 ** _To Be Continued...  
_**


	12. Chapter 12

The flimsy piece of coffee-stained paper shakes in Seiji's hand, as his eyes scan over the writing, unable to stop the tears from dropping and splattering onto the written note.

His stomach feels sick, and his heart has started racing tenfold. But, he keeps reading.

 _You've been my best friend ever since we were 4, we've been through literally everything together. You're the reason I'm still sane to this day._

 _Truth is, I'm a giant coward. I'm avoidant and I hate confrontation. I love you so much that it's hard for me to describe, and I didn't want to hurt you? I really don't know._

 _I hope you will forgive me, because I hate myself for not telling you._

 _See ya,_

 _Yoshi._

Ryoku bursts into the miniature laboratory, something is clearly off; He's never seen Seiji so upset. "Seiji! What the fuck is going on!?" he asks, his voice full of concern and confusion. Seiji just stays silent and drops to his knees. "Seiji!"

"It-it's Kojima…" Seiji begins, his voice cracking, "he's gone into cardiac arrest…"

"Wait, what!?" Ryoku shakes his head, maybe he misheard.

"I said that Kojima has gone into cardiac arrest, Umi just told me," the distressed man growls, tears escaping his eyes and fleeing for refuge on the concrete floor, "can you fix your fucking ears and listen for once!"

Ryoku simply stands there in shock, Seiji rarely ever snaps, "W-well is he okay?"

"I don't fucking know! All I know is that they're at Tokyo U hospital."

"Then let's go!" Ryoku forces Seiji to his feet and places his hand on his shoulder "He'll be okay alright?"

Seiji grabs a nearby sweater and sticks his phone and the note into the pockets. "Yeah, let's hope so."

"I'm coming with, he is my Master after all," Tokyo Rose adds as soon as the two humans get into the living room, grabbing a jacket of her own and running out the door along with them.

Once they step outside they are immediately hit in the face with intense droplets of rain.

"It's raining, huh? Seems strangely fitting somehow, almost as if it was all planned," she comments.

Immediately after that Seiji starts running as hard and as fast as he can to the hospital. _Oh god, I hope he's okay!_

* * *

They rush into the emergency doors, panting from the running and drenched from the pouring rain.

" _Haah...haahh..._ Where is he?" Seiji asks a certain pain can be seen in his eyes.

Umi sits up from her seat and slowly walks over to the two men and the persocom, her footsteps shaky and uneven.

"They took him in for emergency surgery, he's been in there for ten minutes already," she explains.

"Emergency surgery? W-what for?" Tokyo Rose stutters, "where is Kotoko?"

"I-I don't know," Umi says, "she has been hiding in Kojima's bag, refusing to come out."

"Oh, god! This is all my fault… I should've seen the signs..." Seiji puts his head in his hand in shame.

"Seiji! It's not your fault! None of us saw this coming, I don't even think that he did." Umi gives Seiji a hug and doesn't let go.

"I know, I just feel that way because I've known him for sixteen years…" He replies, hugging her back. Ryoku puts his hands on their shoulders.

"I guess that all we can do now is wait…" Tokyo Rose says quietly.

* * *

Some time passes, no one knows how long, and the five have stayed put in the same position, not saying a word.

A nurse walks out with a clipboard in hand, "Excuse me, are you guys relatives of ?" he asks.

"Uh, in a sense…" Tokyo Rose replies.

"Why? How is he? Is he okay?" Seiji questions urgently.

"Well, he is alive. We inserted an ICD once we got his heart beating again," the nurse responds, the group breathes out a sigh of relief, "However, we also noticed that he looked somewhat malnourished, so we took a blood test and looked inside of his stomach, turns out he also has a peptic ulcer, it's a very small one and shouldn't take more than a week to heal. The test results should be in tomorrow."

"Can we see him?" Umi requests. The nurse shakes his head.

"We have placed him in the ICU until we are sure that his condition is getting better and we know that the ICD is working properly. Any further questions?"

"One more actually," Seiji steps forward, "when will he wake up?"

"Ah, it's hard to tell, but we predict two or three days." The nurse says.

"Okay, if he wakes up when we're not here, call this number please," he says, giving the medic his number.

"I will sir, you guys should probably go home and rest, it's been a long evening," the nurse suggests.

* * *

My entire body feels weightless like I am being suspended mid-air. I can't hear anything, it's as if I'm in some sort of a void that no human has traversed before. I twitch my fingers and my body as much as I can, trying to infer where I am, but yet I feel nothing.

 _What the hell? Am I in space or something? No, that's impossible. Am I dead?_ I slowly open my eyes, only to find myself in a blue and black space, the two colours bleeding into each other to form a gradient.

"Huh?" I lift up what I assume to be my hands, only to find the paws of my monster form instead. I quickly feel myself to make sure. "Yup, I'm in my monster form. Doesn't seem like I can transfer back to being 'human' either."

Just to make sure, I attempt to transfer back into my human form using all of the methods I know, but nothing works. I let out a deep, long sigh "so, this is what death feels like huh? Hm, it's nothing like I've expected. Y'know, life was much more exciting, at least then I had computers, anime, friends…"

I blink rather slowly and look up into the abyss, crossing my arms. "I'm so sorry Seiji… I'm a fucking retard for not telling you." I sigh again, immediately sitting up and looking around a bit more. It's just the same blue and black gradient all around until my eye catches a small white figure somewhat far away from me.

 _Wait a minute…_ I take a closer look at it to see long dark brown hair, the same shade as mine, tied into a super high ponytail. My eyes widen as everything in my body just stops.

"Yume?"

She soon sits up and turns her head to face mine, and her face is that of shock. I can see her saying something, but I can't hear it. It looks like she is saying "Yoshi?" but I'm not entirely sure.

We run towards each other, reaching out to the other with one arm. once I see her clear as day, confirming that yes, she is my sister, we start running towards each other, full speed with tears in our eyes, but, as soon as our hands are about to touch, less than a millimetre apart, some kind of wall stops us.

Startled and panicked, I glide my hand over the surface, creating a rippling effect. It's as if it is some kind of force field dividing us.

We press our paws up against one another, almost touching with only the thin shield in the way, and gaze into each others tearing eyes.

 _Wait, this is probably all just a dream. There's no way that this is the real her…_ I divert my eyes away from seemingly my sister _She isn't alive… she hasn't been alive for years… this is all an illusion._

I look back up at her and I start banging on the shield, trying desperately to break it, but alas it fails. Because of course, it does.

We try banging on the barrier together until suddenly, I can feel the fur of her paw against mine.

I pull back and look at my own "hands" and then back at her again, she has the same shocked expression as I do.

I try to traverse the wall again just to make sure, and my arm travels through and touches her shoulder as she touches mine.

Tears run down our faces, looking at each other in astonishment.

"Yoshi!" Her voice is clearly audible to me now, albeit more mature than I remember, same with her body.

"Yume!" I gasp, putting my paws up to my mouth.

We both step forwards, crossing the wall and immediately hugging each other as tight as we can, both of us sobbing as we feel each other's warmth and touch for the first time in years.

She smells of artificial vanilla, her favourite scent.

We just stand there holding each other for the longest time, not saying a word, wishing that we can just stay like this forever.

Soon I can feel a strong force trying to rip us apart, and we grip onto each other, trying to stop it, but it fails and we are torn apart before everything goes black once again.


	13. Chapter 13

The walk back home is long, the air is stagnant, and the group is left in desolating silence. Kotoko hasn't come out of Kojima's messenger bag, which is currently slung across Seiji's shoulder.

After a long time Tokyo Rose lets out a sigh before shaking her head in disbelief, "Guys, he's alive isn't he? The nurse told us that he would be okay, so why are we acting like depressed little pieces of shit right now?"

"Tokyo Rose... why do you think? Kojima went into cardiac arrest and nearly died, wouldn't be the first time either," Umi says.

"Wouldn't be the first time? Why do you say that?" the persocom asks.

Umi looks off into the distance, "I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate me telling you the entire story, but basically when Koj was fifteen his heart stopped when he was in the middle of an Angelic Layer battle..."

Tokyo Rose slowly nods, "I see... but he survived didn't he?" The entire group falls silent.

"Rose, what's the point you're trying to get at here?" Seiji questions.

"My point is, that we should be happy that he is alive, not depressed because he went into cardiac arrest," She states, "think of it this way, he's survived the same thing twice and that's pretty damn lucky. Yes, my Master almost died, but we shouldn't be mourning about what might have happened; we should be celebrating that he has survived, is well, and that it is very unlikely that it will happen again."

The aspiring detective looks up and contemplates these words for a while, before smiling a bit, "Hm, y'know, in a way you're right about that."

* * *

Buenos Aires, Argentina. 7:50 A.M

* * *

"Oh come on, come on! Why won't you die already?" A middle-aged Japanese woman mutters under her breath as she attempts to slay the final boss in her game, "Ugh! those people on the internet really weren't kidding were they? This guy is tough!"

This woman is known as Mirai Kojima, she is a neuroscientist who is currently studying the brains of people in different countries with a team of 7 others. Right now she is situated in Buenos Aires, Argentina and plans on having a permanent residence there as she travels the world for her studies. One thing that should be mentioned is that this woman is Yoshiyuki's mother.

Suddenly her phone starts going off in the middle of her battle, and she reluctantly pauses the game. "This better not be those bastards back at the lab!" Mirai takes out her phone and looks at the caller ID, "Seiji? he never calls, he's a texter."

"Hey, how is my non-biological, technical son doing?" she answers.

"Well I'm good, relieved that finals are over and we can finally relax, how are you?" Seiji chuckles.

"Yeah, I'd imagine so heh heh. I'm okay, although aging and being an old woman takes a toll on you!"

"What? No, Mirai you are forty! That's far from being an old woman!" He exclaims.

"If you say so!" she laughs, "anyways, how is Yoshiyuki doing? Is he eating properly and getting enough sleep? Because I know how he has problems with those, he has ever since he was a kid."

"Well actually, he's the reason I'm calling you," Seiji's tone of voice suddenly goes from light to serious as the mood takes a sharp decline.

"The reason you're calling me?" Mirai raises her eyebrow and puts down her controller, "why? What's wrong?"

The other end of the line goes silent as he takes in a deep breath.

"Seiji! What's going on!?" She asks urgently, her voice thick with concern.

"Yoshi, he... he went into cardiac arrest earlier today." He says finally.

"What!? Cardiac arrest!?" her eyes widen as her heart plummets to the deepest pits of hell. _Again!? Oh God..._ Dropping her phone, she sits there shaking like a leaf in a cold autumn's wind as tears start streaming down her cheeks.

"I know, it's hard for me too...Mirai?" he says after a couple of minutes of silence

Mirai feels as if she is going to vomit. _Is he dead? Oh God please don't tell me that he is dead! Please!_ she soon shakily picks up the phone and holds it up to her ear, "Please, Please tell me that he's okay! Please!" She begs, sobbing into the phone's receiver.

"Yes, he's okay. Well, He is alive at least. Umi took him to the hospital and they implanted an ICD and he's currently in the ICU," Seiji assures the weeping mother.

"Oh thank God!" Mirai shakily breathes out a sigh of relief, "thank you for informing me Seiji, I'll try and make it back to Japan as soon as I can."

"Okay, hold on. WHAT? UMI! NO I'M ON THE PHONE WITH KOJIMA'S MOTHER!" he yells, some other voices can be heard but not very well at all. "Ugh, gotta go, Umi is calling me over, but um... can you tell me when you're coming to Japan and for how long when you know?"

"Yeah," she agrees, "before you go, can you update me on how Yoshiyuki is doing when you can?"

"I will. Okay, love you bye." Seiji says.

"Love you too." and with that, they hang up.

Ms. Kojima sinks down further into her couch, grabbing at her hair and tilting her head back.

"That's the second time in five years that he's gone into cardiac arrest... I should have never agreed to Mihara's experiment, then they wouldn't go through so much pain..." she sighs and grabs a picture of her two now adult children, "I'm sorry Yumeyukki, Yoshiyuki for being such a terrible mother..." as she utters these words, tears start hurling out of her eyes and breaking onto the glass-framed photo.

* * *

Meanwhile in Pheonix...

* * *

"SANS!" Papyrus yells, stomping over to Sans' and Frisk's room and banging the door open.

"sup bro?" Sans greets, he is currently laying on his back on the bed scrolling through his phone with one of those touch screen pens attached to his bony finger.

"SANS FOR THE THIRD TIME THIS WEEK YOU HAVE HIDDEN MY SPAGHETTI IN WEIRD PLACES ALL AROUND THE HOUSE!" the still aspiring Royal Guard impatiently taps his booted foot on the ground and crosses his arms, "WHERE DID YOU PUT IT NOW!?"

"i dunno, you must've walked pasta it." a loud BA DUM TISS can be heard in the background, leaving Sans snickering as Papyrus just glares at him.

"OH MY GOD SANS! THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR YOUR PUNS!"

"ahhh c'mon you're smilin!"

"NO I AM NOT! MY MISSING SPAGHETTI IS A BIG ISSUE!"

"i dunno where it is," Sans looks on top of Pap's head, "so it'll be impastable for you to find it."

"UGGGGGGHHHHHHHH! SANS I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR PUNS! THEY'RE LIKE PUN-ISHMENT!"

"oh. my. god pap!" Sans gasps in amazement, "you just made a pun!"

"ONLY BECAUSE YOU MADE ME!"

"Woah! Woah! Woah what's all the yelling for?" Undyne interrupts, barging into the room.

"SANS HAS HIDDEN MY SPAGHETTI AGAIN AND NOW HE IS TORTURING ME WITH HIS TERRIBLE PUNS!" Papyrus answers. Undyne's eyes travel up to the top of Papyrus's head where a plate of three-day-old spaghetti is perched.

"Uh Papyrus... Check the top of your head," she points to her head and pats it. Papyrus copies her actions, only to have his gloved hand plop onto a cold, slimey mass.

"OH IT APPEARS THAT THE SPAGHETTI WAS ON MY HEAD THE WHOLE TIME! CRISIS HAS BEEN AVERTED, COME ON UNDYNE!" The younger skelebro yanks on the fish monster's arm, dragging her out of the room.

"heh heh." Sans quietly laughs to himself, closing his eyes, "oh pap. wish i could be as clueless as you are sometimes..."

"Are you sure about that Sansy?" a sweet sounding voice asks.

"hm?" Sans peeks open one of his eye-sockets to see Frisk laying there beside him "oh, hey there kiddo, didn't even notice you climbed in."

"You're still calling me 'kiddo' after everything that has happened?" Frisk giggles.

"at this point it's more of a pet name bucko," the skeleton chuckles, reaching out to touch his partner's cheek.

Frisk blushes, expecting the usual feeling of rough bone being dragged across their skin, but is instead greeted with a completely different sensation. "Sans, why does your hand feel... warm and flesh-like?"

"hm?" Sans retracts his hand and looks at it "what're you talking about? it's just my normal ha-" in the corner of his "eye" he can see that one of his fingers has a quickly disappearing patch of dark brown skin and flesh. "what the hell?" If he were human, he would be feeling the adrenaline rushing through his veins making his heart pound.

"What's wrong?" Frisk asks, the concern in their voice apparent.

"it's probably nothing," he dismisses, shaking his hand, "don't worry about it kid."

* * *

One day later, 5:01 PM, Tokyo, Japan.

* * *

Seiji nervously taps his fingers on the kitchen counter, where his other elbow rests, supporting his head that is cupped in the palm of his hand.

 _'It's been almost a full day and I haven't heard anything from the hospital... Please don't leave this world Yosh... We've already lost Yume, I can't lose you too...'_ he clenches his hand into a tight fist as he stares off into the distance, looking at absolutely nothing.

"Hey Seiji," Umi taps on the man in a daze in an attempt to snap him out of his trance, "look, I know you're upset about Kojima, we all are, but you can't stay like this forever. You haven't eaten since we got home yesterday and you've been moping around all day. You need to snap out of it!"

Seiji sighs, completely ignoring the woman before walking over to a nearby chair and grabbing Kotoko.

"I'm going out." Is all he says, putting on his shoes and walking out the door.

"She has a point you know." The laptop comments once they've started walking.

"Hm." Is all he responds with, but almost as if this entire event was scripted, Kotoko starts to receive a call. "Seiji, I'm receiving a call, it's from the nurse!"

Seiji's eyes widen, "answer it!"

Kotoko nods as she closes her eyes and reopens them.

"Hello, is this Seiji Shimbo?" the nurse asks, "I am the nurse who spoke with you last night."

"Yup," he confirms, "How's Kojima? is he okay? is he out of the ICU?"

"Yes, we have taken Mr. Kojima out of the ICU once we concluded that his ICD was working properly, and that there is a very small possibility of his heart stopping," the nurse informs.

"Oh thank god!" Seiji breathes out a sigh of relief, "can I see him?"

"Yes, however due to his current condition you will be limited to twenty minutes of visitation. He is in room 6014 on the sixth floor."

"Thank you sir." he promptly hangs up before smiling to himself, "he's okay!"

* * *

They soon arrive on the sixth floor of the University hospital, with the scent of disinfectant and medicine burning the human's nostrils with every inhalation, and each of his steps echo in the seemingly abandoned hallway. Kotoko had to be put in a specialized locker, as a safety and privacy precaution.

Seiji soon arrives at the closed door that is the gateway to Kojima's room, and reaches for the door handle but hesitates. Part of him is too scared to see his sick partner, the other part can't wait another second longer.

"Okay... we can do this..." he takes in a deep breath before opening the steel door and stepping in.

The ominous sounds of suction and expulsion from a mechanical ventilator, and the repetitive but steady beeps of a heart monitor fill Seiji's ears as he walks past two empty hospital bed sections to the end of the room.

"Yoshi?" he pulls away the curtains and peers at the comatose figure on the hospital bed in front of him.

Kojima is shirtless with the hospital blankets covering his lower half, revealing a few IV drips and adhesive patches attached to the heart rate monitor beside him, a respiratory mask is secured to his nose and mouth, and his glasses are resting on the medical tray attached to the bed.

Seiji gulps a little as he gently holds one of Kojima's hands and brings it up to his lips, closing his eyes.

"Hey Yoshi," he greets, his voice wobbly and cracking as a tear slides down his cheek, an he doesn't move, until he slowly opens his eyes.

"Huh? What the hell is that?" Upon opening his eyes, Seiji notices something that he hadn't before. There is a strange patch of brown... fur? on Kojima's left shoulder, the majority of his arm covered by a blanket.

The curious and confused man walks to the other side of his lover's still body, hesitating before removing the obstructive piece of cloth, expecting to see Kojima's arm with a couple IV drips, but is greeted by a strange sight. Instead of a regular human arm, he is greeted by an arm-sized, brown cat's paw.

"What the hell!?" Seiji gasps, putting his hand up to his mouth in shock, "K-Koj, w-why do you have a cat's paw as an arm!?" He shakes his head in disbelief and moves to glide his hand along the fur, but just as he manages to touch it, the paw transforms back into a normal human hand.

Seiji retracts his hand with his heart thumping and his mind going in all different speeds and directions, he slowly walks to the other side of the bed and sits down in the chair beside Kojima.

 _What are you all hiding from me Yoshiyuki?_


	14. Chapter 14

Seiji walks out of the hospital after visiting his unconscious love with his brain nearly drowning in a sea of thoughts and questions that he isn't sure if they will ever get answered; the sight and feeling of Kojima's estranged paw is still fresh and vivid in his mind.

Yet, he isn't as baffled as he thinks he should be.

In fact the sight seems...familiar somehow.

 _Why do I have this overwhelming sense that I've seen that paw before? Maybe on a cat? In a dream. I don't know._

His stomach growls, interrupting his train of thought. _Oh yeah, I haven't eaten anything since yesterday..._ The simple nudges of Deja Vu from earlier turn into harsh shoves as he stops and stands in a small park. _Wait a minute..._

* * *

7 years earlier, 7:15 PM, the middle of Tokyo.

* * *

"Geez it's cold! I hate Winter!" 13 year old Yoshiyuki complains, shivering as a blast of cold November wind hits his face, dislodging his already loose-fitting glasses.

"Oh stop complaining! It's only 0 outside!" Yumeyukki slaps her brother's back in annoyance, the force along with the wind cause his frames to slip off of his face, dangling off of one ear rendering him nearly blind.

" _Only_ 0 degrees!? Onee-chan* that's the freezing point of water!" He shivers, fixing his glasses.

"Get over it, you've made it through worse."

"Yeah how 'bout you get over it?"

Seiji giggles a little bit as he listens to the twins' pointless bickering. The street they are walking on is pretty much packed with people hurriedly shopping and getting the last of the deals before prices skyrocket for Christmas, some are getting home, going to work, and just going about their daily lives.

It's dusk and a couple of stars are beginning to show some of their light despite the Tokyo glow.

"...well maybe you wouldn't be so cold if your body consisted more then organs, skin, and bones!" Yume finalizes, sticking her tongue out childishly.

"Um actually, Yosh has a point. We've been walking around outside for hours, and it feels pretty damm cold!" Seiji butts in, "but Yume is right it is just 0 degrees so calm down."

"HA! Told you I wasn't being irrational!" Yoshi says victoriously before realizing what is being said, "wait, what?"

"Ugh, you just have to settle the middle ground don't you Sage Boy?" Yume jokingly rolls her eyes and checks her watch, "Okay, it's 7:16. We should probably get something to eat before heading home."

"Finally! You say something rational!" her twin teases.

"Now that I think of it... I haven't eaten since yesterday," Seiji's stomach growls further proving this point.

"Bro are you trying to turn into me?" Yoshi snickers, "Oh the tables have turned haven't they? It finally isn't my stomach this time that's noisy!" He wraps his arm around his best friend's shoulders in celebration.

"Please, I'm willing to bet that soon your stomach is gonna produce a sound that's loud enough for other people around us to hear Mr. I haven't eaten in three days because I've been too busy tinkering with game codes." Seiji says in certainty.

"Hey, that's just the price you have to pay sometimes. Besides mine isn't that loud, I bet it'll barely noticeable." Yoshiyuki scoffs, "besides I wanna beat this big-shot Toby Fox at this Halloween Hack thing for Earthbound."

"If you say so, then I guess it's the truth nerd," Yume shrugs, the sarcasm is sickeningly thick in her speech.

However as predicted, a low and loud groaning noise soon emits from within Yoshiyuki's stomach earning the trio a couple of glances from a few people around them, and causing his face to go up in flames as he freezes.

"Holy shit Yosh! I knew that you were hungry but not _that_ hungry!" Seiji barely manages to squeak out those words as he attempts to hold in his laughter.

Yume however does no such thing and just bursts out laughing at her brother's expense, "Oh my god Onii-chan! You speak too certainly too soon!"

"Both of you shut up!" the culprit of the growl yells, taking his hand out of his white jacket pocket and resting it on his abdomen, clutching it a bit. "besides it's not like it's my fault anyways."

"Oh yeah because it's totally _my_ fault that _you_ decided to neglect eating for three days therefore making _your_ stomach growl louder than a freaking alarm clock on full blast!" Yume argues.

"Okay first of all, it was not that loud!" Yoshi counters.

"Pfft did you see how many people looked?"

"This is besides the point, I'm saying that it's _your_ fault because you were the first to mention eating making Seiji's..." he beings to say, getting up in his sister's face.

The entire argument fades out of hearing for Seiji as he notices something...off about his friend's hand. It's not a hand, but a... a paw! A brown paw that matches the exact colour of his dark-chocolate brown hair. _What the hell?_

"... chain reaction my ass! Yours was gonna rumble no matter what, _you_ just don't want to admit it!" Yume finishes.

Stirring back into reality, Seiji butts in yet again, "Yo Yosh, what's with the paw?"

"Huh!?" A brief look of panic crosses Yoshiyuki's face as he hurriedly looks down to see what he's talking about, "what the hell do you mean Seiji? That's just my regular hand."

"What?" Seiji looks back, and sure enough it had changed back to a normal hand when he wasn't looking, "but I could've sworn that you had a paw instead of a hand for a second there!"

"Maybe you're the one with the problems!" The twins both laugh in complete sync with each other.

"Well at least I can keep track of when I need to eat!" Seiji sneers.

"Bullshit you didn't eat at all yesterday!" Yoshi smacks Seiji's back with his free hand with a wide grin plastered on his face despite himself.

"Whatever, I'm better at it than you at least!"

* * *

 _So I have seen that paw before… now that I think of it, I think that there was another time where I saw it for a brief split second a couple years ago, but I can't remember it clearly enough to know for sure…_

Seiji pulls out the coffee-stained slip of paper from last night and reads over Kojima's borderline illegible chicken scratch one more time, his hands trembling a little as he gulps down a lump in his throat. _You sure are an interesting puzzle Dragonfly, I thought that I had all collected all of your pieces over the years, but it seems that I'm still missing a few. Looks like you're a harder case to crack than I thought._

 _Brrrrrzzzzt! Brrrrrrzzzzt!_ Out of the blue he can suddenly feel his phone vibrate against his thigh through his jeans' pocket, breaking his trance.

"Hello?" Seiji answers, putting the cellular device up to his ear, not bothering to look at who might be calling. Could be a serial killer for all he knows.

"Hello Seiji," Mirai's voice rings out from the receiver, "It's Mirai, I'm calling to let you know that I have booked my plane ticket to go back to Japan and to let you know how long I will be staying-"

"Oh hey! Perfect timing I actually just saw Yoshiyuki in the hospital," he says, accidentally interrupting the woman and sitting down on a nearby swing-set, swaying a bit back and forth.

"Really!? How is he!?" The concerned mother asks urgently, a bit annoyed that she was cut off. In fact it's why she avoids driving.

"Well he is still unconscious and attached to various machines. The doctors say that they don't expect him to wake up for a couple days yet," he relays, looking up at the slowly but ever darkening sky up above him.

"I see, well that's to be expected after all; he didn't wake up for several days after his heart transplant surgery. Not to mention he might not remember the past couple of days, depending on how long he went with out oxygen" she responds in a surprisingly calm manner, "I'm just so glad to hear that my son is going to live."

"Mmhmm, we all are."

"Anyways, as I was saying I will be arriving in Japan in two days and I will be staying there for four before I have to go back to Argentina," Mirai informs.

"Alright sounds good, hopefully he wakes up."

"Yeah, well I have to go to work. I'll see you in a couple of days."

"Okay, and Mirai when you're here I need to talk to you about something." he adds.

"Hm? Talk to me about something? Well okay. I have to go, love you, bye."

With that Mirai hangs up, and Seiji gets off of the swings before heading home.

* * *

A man dressed in all black clothing save for a contrasting white lab coat walks through the entrance of the hospital, flipping a coin in his hands. Receiving some side glances, he makes his way to the receptionist's cubicle where a persocom patiently waits hooked up to something out of sight.

"Hello," he greets, " I have received news that Yoshiyuki Kojima is currently admitted into this hospital."

"Let me just check here..." light streaks across the persocom's eyes for a split second as she processes the request, "ah yes, Mr. Kojima is located in room 6015 on the sixth floor."

"Thank you ma'am," he grabs a "visitor" tag off of the counter and clips it on to the hem of his shirt.

"As you are visiting I must inform you that due to his condition there is a maximum visitation period of twenty minutes, and due to privacy and safety reasons you must put any persocoms into specialized lockers," she informs.

"Thank you, I will keep that in mind," he nods before turning around and flipping the bottom of his lab coat like a cape as he walks off into a nearby elevator. He has a mischievous grin plastered onto his previously blank face as he presses the button for the sixth floor.

"Finally...finally! My grand experiment is coming together!" he cackles to himself with a crazy look in his eyes and on his face.

This only lasts a few seconds as he soon relaxes back into a neutral expression once the elevator doors open. He steps out into the dimly lit hallway of the sixth floor, walking with an invisible weight in his uneasy footing.

Opening the door to room 6014 the man takes a weary step inside. The sounds of various medical machines flow into his ears, while this melody keeps on getting louder and louder as he approaches the last curtain of the room and slides it to the side, grinning.

"So, it is all going as planned," his grin falters involuntarily as he looks over the unconscious body of his subject, that is covered in various wires and various implanted tubes that lead to various machines. "Has he seen her yet?"

"Yu...Yu...Yume..." Kojima mumbles, lifting up his arm as if he was reaching for something, or someone before collapsing it back onto the bed.

The man's eyes widen as an initial feeling of success quickly dissipates and forms into a dagger of guilt that stabs itself into his soul.

"Oh what have I done to you?" His emotional side soon takes over like a tidal wave as tears stream down his face and he gently touches Kojima's cheek, "I'm so sorry, I don't want to do this to you! I don't want to hurt you! I'm sorry that I wasn't there...for you two and Mirai."

Dropping down to his knees, he gently puts his hand on the middle of Yoshiyuki's chest. "But, I have to...for the sake of...well...everything."

* * *

"Hello ma'am," he greets the receptionist persocom once again as soon he had made it back down to the main level.

"Good Evening sir, done with your visit?" she asks.

"Ah yes I am," he yanks off the "visitor" tag and places it onto the counter, "I actually have a request to make."

"And what would that be?"

"I would like to cover all of Mr. Kojima's hospital and medical bills," he says, "is that a possibility?"

"Yes, that is a possibility," she responds, "what is your name sir?"

* * *

*for those who don't know Onii-chan, Onii-Kun, Onii-san, or Onii-sama are all different ways of saying "brother" in Japanese, similarily Onee-chan, Onee-san, and Onee-sama are all different ways of saying "sister".


	15. Chapter 15

**_Silence, just straight silence. No thought...just undisturbed silence...for what seems to be an eternity..._**

* * *

5:36 P.M, Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo University hospital. Kojima's POV.

* * *

 _Beeeeeeeeep...beeeeeeep...beeeeeep..._

A sudden sound pierces through my ears, startling me. _What is this noise?_ it's faint at first, but it keeps on getting louder, and louder with each passing moment. _Ugh, god damn it_ _that's annoying..._

The sounds of mechanical suction and expulsion soon join in as well. I can feel my chest forcibly rising and falling.

 _Wait...where am I?_ I wonder, but my eyes won't open...my mind is still hazy.

I'm cold, every part of my body is freezing save for one of my hands which seems to be cupped in warmth.

" _...mmphhmhphmh..."_ I can now hear someone speak, but I can't make out a word that they're saying though, just garbled nothingness.

" _...three days.._."

 _Wait, three days? What three days? This voice sounds familiar..._

 _"...and he still hasn't woken up..."_

 _Is this...Seiji? I need to see..._ when finally, a ray of light painfully strikes my retinas and I snap them shut again. _Fuck that's bright!_ I try again, and this time the brightness dissipates into a blurry mess of well...different shades of white mostly.

I shift my eyes to my right, where I see a fuzzy blob that sort of resembles a person.

"... _uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh_..." Is all I can manage to say.

I hear a light gasp, "Yoshi...are you awake?" the figure asks. This sounds like...Seiji's voice. "It's okay, take your time."

I take a few seconds to try to muster up some of my waning strength, just so I can say _something._

"S...s...ssss..." _Shit, t_ _his is hard..._ "S...se-sei-Seiji?"

* * *

Seiji's POV.

* * *

The instant I hear his weak voice utter my name is the instant a flood of emotion comes running into me like an unrelenting riptide. _Oh my god... He's... He's awake!_

"Yes, Kojima. It's me!" I confirm as a tear escapes my eye and drops onto his new scar. _He's okay! he's okay!_

He smiles weakly, "Y-y-y-y-you-you're h-h-he-here." he says, his already near-incomprehensible words further muffled by his breathing mask.

"Yes, I'm here, and so are you."

A couple of seconds pass and he doesn't do anything but stare aimlessly at the ceiling, squinting, blinking, and eventually fully opening his eyes. _Of course...he's not fully conscious yet._

"Wh-wh-where am I?" he asks, his speech is quickly coming back.

"You're in the hospital," I answer.

"Fuck," Kojima squints until his eyes are practically just black lines on his face, "can't...see shit."

"Well obviously, you aren't wearing your glasses, and you just woke up from being unconscious for nearly three days."

"Wait, what!?" just with those words he is instantly twice as awake as he was, "where are they!?"

 _Because of course he is much more concerned about his glasses than why he is in the hospital, or why he was out of it for days._

"They're on the tray beside your bed, but you probably shouldn't put them on just yet." I chuckle.

Kojima rolls his eyes and shakily reaches out to yank on one of his IV drips. "Why am I even here anyway? What are these tubes? Why does my shoulder feel...weird?"

I grab his hand and place it back beside him, "yes you are connected to an-several IVs and machines. So don't yank on anything!"

"...why? What happened to me?"

"You," I hesitate as I can feel a lump forming in my throat, "you..." remembering the note in my pocket, I try to swallow it back down, "you fell into cardiac arrest a couple of days ago..."

"What?" Yoshiyuki's eyes widen in surprise, his pupils shrink. _He can't remember can he?_ "this has to be a joke." fear is suddenly present in his voice and his breathing becomes more jagged and uneasy. "heh, it has to be."

"Yeah... you did," I slightly nod in conformation.

He just remains still, for several seconds before relaxing a bit, "I see."

"Yeah..." I straighten up from my bent down position and let go of his cold hand and turn around, "here, I'll go get the doctor and tell them that you are awake."

"Wait, Seiji," I feel something tug on the hem of my shirt, "don't...leave...I don't want to be alone."

"Hey, I'm just getting the doctor, I'm not going anywhere okay?" I assure, as his grip on me loosens. I look back and see his fear stricken, teary eyes meet mine, immediately sending a dagger into my heart, "I'll just be a few seconds and I'm coming right back."

I give him a tender kiss on the forehead before slowly walking out of the room.

* * *

Just as promised, I come back within a minute and sit down beside him. Then within that minute the doctor comes into the room, clipboard in hand.

"Yoshiyuki Kojima was it?" She begins, "I see that you're awake."

"...barely..." he responds.

"That's pretty normal, how do you feel?" She asks, looking at all of the equipment.

"...Weak, tired, fuzzy, I can feel all of the things I'm hooked up to, my shoulder feels...weird, and my stomach hurts," he answers.

The doctor only replies with a nod and jots something down on her clipboard.

"What happened to me?" Kojima sighs. _He hasn't seen his shoulder yet..._

 _"_ You relapsed into sudden cardiac arrest three days ago, so we implanted in implantable cardiac defibrillator into your left shoulder. We also found that the nutrient levels in your blood are low as well as a peptic ulcer in your stomach," she explains.

The almost nonexistent hint of color in his face slowly disappears into nothingness and he narrows his eyes as he gulps, "cardiac arrest...huh?" his words and tone of voice sound empty; completely devoid of emotion.

"Yes sir. Now we will have to do a physical examination later on as well as several tests to see what went wrong."

"My heart, that's what went wrong," he jokes, the void of emotion still present but slowly coming back as I can hear his voice crack in uncertainty.

The doctor lightly chuckles and writes something down on her clipboard, "I will return shortly with a nurse and we may begin the physical okay?" And with that she quietly exists the room.

"Well this is great," he scoffs, carefully crossing his arms so that he doesn't do much damage, "my heart fails me for the second time-no this isn't even my heart. It's her's and I've failed it."

"No, that's not it at all!..." My voice tapers off. I can feel another lump build up in my throat and my chest feels heavy.

"Hey, are you okay?" He asks, reaching out and touching my warm hand with his cold fingers.

A storm of emotion comes crashing into me, setting up a tsunami of tears that gush from my eyes, and I immediately wrap my arms around his frail body and squeeze him.

"I'm just so happy to know that you're alive!" I sob into his messy brown hair, refusing to let go, "when I heard what happened the pain was unimaginable! I thought that you had died!"

"Well I didn't, and there's no way I could have either."

"What makes you say that!?" I cry.

"Because," he smiles lightly, "the moment I say goodbye to you, is the moment when I have said and done everything to you, and I will always have something to say or do to you. In other words: I'll never say 'goodbye' to you either, Seiji, and I didn't say goodbye did I?"

This immediately makes me stop in my tracks and I lift myself up and look him in the eyes. He remembers that night! "I love you so much!" Tears soon drip again, but they're tears of happiness. This man is my soulmate.

"I love you too!" This time he hugs onto me and doesn't let go, "more than you'll ever know..."

* * *

The next day, same location, 3:30 P.M.

* * *

 _*knock, knock, knock, BANG!*_ The sudden loud noise completely jolts Kojima out from his half-asleep state and makes his heart skip a couple beats.

"What the f-"

"YOSHIYUKI KOJIMA YOU LITTLE MOTHERFUCKER!" The room door swings open and bashes against the wall, surely leaving a dent behind as three figures walk through the door frame. Umi angrily rushes to the last curtain and pushes it back with fire in her eyes.

"Woah! Umi calm down!" He tries to stop her by defensively putting up his hands, but it's too late. She's already on the hospital bed, all up in his personal space.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!? CARDIAC ARREST AND A STOMACH ULCER? WE WERE WORRIED SICK," she yells.

"Well you yelling in my face and stressing me out isn't exactly helping that ulcer, in fact it's making it worse!" he winces.

"Yeesh! Umi! not so loud the guy is just starting to recover from a freaking heart attack!" Ryoku says in a hushed tone, pulling Umi off of Kojima and giving her a pinch on the bicep.

"Sorry Yosh..." Seiji has a bit of a sheepish look on his face as he stands off to the side.

"Whew, okay," Umi calms down just enough so that she isn't yelling bloody murder anymore, "now this explains why you haven't been eating and why you've been more lethargic than usual."

"Huh?" Kojima just kinda blinks at her in confusion.

"Well, you haven't really been eating for the past week and a half, and you've been well, lethargic."

"Umi that isn't the case-"

"You've been stressed out, yes yes I know. But i'm not done. the recent drinking is also a factor as well as..." Umi then drones on about potential causes and whatnot for a solid ten minutes while everybody just tunes her out.

"Geez man no offense but you look like absolute death!" Ryoku comments.

"Sure feels like it," Kojima responds, rubbing his temples.

"You sound like it too! Like dude did you swallow a cheese grater or something?" Seiji pipes in, snickering.

"You might as well be a cyborg crossed with a zombie with all of those machines and the stitches on your shoulder, and the lack of colour in your skin!" Ryoku continues as he and Seiji laugh like hyenas.

"If you keep this up you'll be in that section right beside me looking like someone has just rearranged all of your insides and left you on a busy highway to get run over again and again," there is a big, evil grin on Kojima's face and he tilts his glasses so that they catch the glint of the fluorescent hospital lights for that extra "scary-shiny-glasses" effect.

"Yeah you just try that Mr. Computer Nerd who is so weak that they're confined to a hospital bed." Seiji counters with a snicker.

"...and that concludes my reason...hey were any of you listening!?" Umi stares at the men with her arms crossed.

"Umi. None of us are med students so we didn't even hear you!" Ryoku says.

Umi sighs, "you guys are hopeless..."

* * *

After about an hour and a half Umi and Ryoku start to pack up to leave for work.

"See you guys later!" But when they open the door, a woman nearly falls face first into the room.

"Ugh geez, I knew that I should have knocked..." The woman is fairly short at around 4'11.4 ft tall and has a somewhat slim physique. Her long, dark chocolate brown hair is tied into a low ponytail that is draped around her shoulder. She has dark eyes, pierced ears, and a horizontal scar across her right cheek. She is wearing thick, black oval glasses, little golden hoop earrings with a diamond at the tops, along with a lab coat, a long black skirt that flares at the end, and of course an Evangelion t-shirt that looks like it's been worn since the 90s. She quickly dusts herself off in a huff.

The three just nod at each in acknowledgement other before going their separate ways.

The woman walks down to the last curtain and pulls it to the side, gaining the attention of her son.

"Mom!?" He gasps in surprise, but instead of responding, she carefully hugs him, refusing to let go.

"Yoshiyuki... I'm so glad that you're okay!" Mirai cries, slowly letting go and touching his face like she used to do whenever they were sick when they were little.

"Of course I'm okay mom, there's no way you're not getting rid of me that easily!" He jokes

"Oh shut up you, you had me worried sick!" She stifles a laugh and smiles, "how are you feeling?"

"Really, really tired, my head is in a fog, I'm sore and weak, and my stomach hurts," he replies.

"Well of course you feel that way, you just went through cardiac arrest and had an ICD implanted. From what I hear from the doctors you also have an ulcer and nutrient deficiency," Mirai sits on the corner of the bed and gently places her hand on her son's leg.

"Sounds about right..." Yoshiyuki sighs, crossing his arms as best he can, "I stopped eating for about a week due to finals, I didn't even think about what it would do to me."

 _Just like his father.._. She thinks.

"Well that contributes to it, but something tells me that this deficiency has been building up for a long time am I right?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know!? I don't notice anything."

"You always have been bad at that. I'm not really concerned about how you've stopped eating under stress, you've done that ever since you were a kid. What does worry me is that I think that it's getting worse."

Yoshiyuki remains silent, because in a way she's right. But not for the reason she thinks it is. "I'll try and work on it."

"Good," she nods again before tackling her son once again "oh I missed you!"

"I missed you too...now get off I can feel these IVs going deeper into my flesh."

"Yosh, let her hug you all she wants, she's your mother who lives thousands of kilometers away." Seiji pipes in, holding some-sort of bag in one hand, and a bunch of controllers in the other.

Mirai immediately detaches herself from Yoshiyuki and latches herself onto Seiji, "don't think I didn't miss you too!"

"Of course," he tries to put his stuff down as gently as he can before hugging her back.

"Wooooow just jump onto him and leave me huh?" Yoshi scoffs.

"Oh shut up you're the one who wanted to get me off of you!" Mirai replies.

"I was being sarcastic!" He snickers.

"I could go over there and smother you in kisses," she threatens, immediately making her son try and back off as best he can.

"No!No!No! No don't you dare!"

Seiji just bursts out laughing.

"Soooooo Yoshiyuki, got any boyfriends yet?" she asks.

"Huh!?" Dragonfly immediately starts blushing like an idiot in the spotlight, "Ahhh...errr...n-no!I-I mean yes! I do!"

"Really!?" Mirai practically jumps onto the bed, "what's his name? Where's he from? How old is he? Does he like anime? Any disorders? Does he go to Tokyo U? What's he studying? What's his social security number? Have you two-"

"Mom! Slow down we've only been dating for a couple days so I don't know yet!" he responds flusteredly.

"Hmmm..." Her eyes shift across the room and points at Seiji, "You! Any boyfriends, girlfriends, or nonbifriends?"

Seiji just scratches the back of his head rather sheepishly and closes his eyes, "Well, yeah. Boyfriend actually!"

"Wow, you two both have boyfriends that you both approve of?" Mirai adjusts her glasses before climbing off of the bed for the last time.

"Surprisingly, he approves," the two lovers say in unison, locking eyes for a split second, before averting their gazes so it doesn't look suspicious.

"Uh-huh, and will I ever meet these said boyfriends?" She questions, before giggling, "I remember whenever one of you had a date, the other two of you would follow them around and spy."

Yoshiyuki just crosses his arms again and sighs, "No isn't really an option with you, you'll find out eventually."

"Nope."

"I'll talk to mine about it, he'll probably be fine with it," Seiji says, shrugging at Kojima.

Mirai suddenly feels her phone vibrating in her coat pocket, indicating that she's gotten a message.

' _Mirai, heard you're in town. Meet me at the park at 12 tonight. You know which one,'_ and without even recognizing the phone number, she knows who it is almost instantaneously.

* * *

"Huh, so you actually showed up. In a way I'm not surprised."

"Pssh, I knew it was you the second I read your text. How'd you get my number anyways? I haven't lived in Japan for four years, nearly five at this point."

"Your sister gave it to me."

"Oh yeah right, you married my sister."

"Mhm, so where are you nowadays?"

"Right now I'm stationed in Argentina, then I'm in Russia."

"Of course, and how have you been?"

"Well I was great up until recently... wasn't expecting to almost lose him again..."

"I know how you feel, it's as hard on me as it is on you...you're crying."

"As if you know what I'm going through! You're the one who-"

"Mirai, he's my son too! And the moment I heard the news, I rushed to the hospital."

"You what?"

"I know, he's not supposed to know who I am, but I had to. There was something in my soul that pushed me to. And when I saw him clinging to life by machines, it shattered my heart into a million pieces."

"...I know that it's just...that was risky, too risky."

"I know, but you have to understand that I couldn't just stand there either."

"I couldn't either, that's why I came to Japan."

"Exactly. See? you can understand other people's feelings after all!"

"Oh shut up, I know what you do to y-"

"Shhhhhh!"

"What?"

"Someone might be listening."

"And how do you know that?"

"I can just feel it."

"Heh, you know, in a way... I kind of missed you."

* * *

A/N: Hey! Its me again, I uhhhh...haven't been very active because school+depression+anxiety isn't a good combo. But things should lighten up soon so fingers crossed. I hope you liked this chapter!


	16. Chapter 16

"So Love, should we tell her?" Kojima asks, adjusting his bed so that he is sitting in an upright position making it easier to see his boyfriend.

"Psh do we even have a choice? She'll find out eventually. This is your mom after all," Seiji responds, flopping back first on the foot of the much too long hospital bed. Mirai left not long ago, saying that she had to meet someone important

Kojima moves around the various tubes and wires in such a way so that there's more room, beckoning him to join afterwards.

"If we do tell her, we will really be official huh?"

Seiji obliges and sits in the cleared spot, gently resting his head in the crook of his lover's neck, "uh-huh..."

"Hey, Love, If telling her means that we're moving too fast we don't have to you know," Kojima wraps his arm around Seiji and pulls him in even closer.

"No it's not that. It's just..." he sighs and lets out a breath he didn't know that he was holding in, "what if she doesn't approve y'know? What if-"

"Seiji, Seiji, Seiji, I'm almost a hundred percent sure that she'll approve of us. I know how you feel, I felt the same way just before I came out to her. But when I did, she hugged me in delight and told me, 'I love you, that stuff doesn't matter to me'." Kojima kisses the top of his boyfriend's head, "she also told me that she was getting worried about me being in the closet so long I forgot I was there. And if for some idiotic reason she doesn't, then screw her. That won't change how I feel about you."

"But-"

"No buts about it! There's a reason why I've been head over heels for you since the final year of highschool."

Seiji relaxes, "okay, thank you Yosh."

"So, when should we tell her?"

He smirks, "probably the last day she is here, but it should be like this big dramatic reveal!"

"Heh, you're on it Sage-boy," Kojima snickers as Seiji glares at him.

"Hey watch your mouth Small Island!"

"Yeah can you do that for me?"

"How?"

Yoshiyuki smirks as his lips gently caress those of Seiji's. "Just like that~"

"That was smooooooth man! Like god damn!" Seiji laughs.

* * *

The Next Day, Tokyo U Hospital, 12:46 P.M

* * *

"You know, they should really redesign how these IV's work, if I wanted I could yank this right out of you putting your life at risk," Mirai says, inspecting one of her son's IV lines, "I remember when your sister was in the hospital due to diabetic shock, and since she talks with exaggerated hand movements she had this problem where whenever she really got into talking she would accidentally pull out her saline line!"

"Yup, eventually I had to grip her arms just so that would stop," Kojima adds in, "she would get so pissed at me when I did that, that I made it a habit to grab her arms randomly for years just to annoy the hell out of her, it was hysterical!"

Mirai giggles, "as revenge didn't she start taking away your plate of food every time you got distracted when eating, and wait to see how long it would take before you noticed?"

"Ugggggggh! Yes she did," he tilts his head back in annoyance.

"One time I think it took you half an hour to realize you weren't eating anything, just air," Mirai looks out the large window in the room, "I miss her, you two were perfect in my mind."

Kojima just nods in response.

 _"Yoshi!"_

"Hey Mom," he gulps, twiddling his thumbs nervously, "I have something I need to tell you."

"Hm? Yes, What is it?" she asks, turning around to face her son.

"When I was passed out... I saw her. I saw Yume."

"You...saw her?" Mirai's eyes widen in disbelief as she sits down in a chair beside the bed, "what do you mean?"

"I was in a strange...place... I don't know how to describe it. I was floating, and the background was black and blue, and I was in my monster form, but I couldn't feel or smell anything, it was a void. Then I looked to the side...that's when...I saw her. She wasn't fifteen either, she was all grown up and was my exact age." Yoshiyuki describes. His mother nods in acknowledgement as he puts his hands on his face, messing up his glasses, "I know that it was probably a dream but..."

"It didn't feel like a dream,

No,

This felt...real."

"It felt real?" she repeats,"how so?" _could it be?_

"It felt real because I touched her. I touched her with my own two...well paws, and I remember what she felt like."

"How so?"

"I don't know how, but as soon as we saw locked eyes, we ran towards each other, and just as we were about to touch we were stopped by some-sort of forcefield that rippled when we touched it. I don't think that it was even an atom thick. We banged against it for god knows how long, trying to reach each other. She was so close! Until suddenly, our arms went through as if it had weakened and we touched each other's shoulders. We just stared at our hand then back to one another, and touched each other again. We did this a couple of times just out of disbelief. Then we grabbed each other and hugged, squeezed even. She felt real, she looked real, she smelled real, I even felt her tears against my coat. We clung on for dear life, crying and never letting go, when the forcefield snapped and tore us away from each other, and I woke up." Tears are now streaming out of Yoshiyuki's eyes as he vividly remembers each moment, feeling it with his entire body, "I saw her mom! I really saw her!"

"Hey, Hey my Yoshi it's okay," Mirai wipes the tears from his face with her sleeve and pulls her distressed son in a caring embrace, stroking his hair lovingly, "maybe You really did see her."

* * *

Several hours later...

* * *

"Hey guys, they just released the cosplay contest theme for the Halloween dance," Ryoku pipes up from his phone, "...and it's kinda weird."

"What is it?" Kojima asks, sticking his tongue out in concentration. Yesterday, Seiji brought in a couple gaming consoles and hooked them up to the TV on the wall of the hospital room, and as of right now Kojima, Umi, and Seiji are playing some battle game, and it's a pretty close tie.

 _"You little motherfucker...get back here I'm not done with you yet!"_ Seiji mutters under his breath

Ryoku lightly chuckles and shakes his head, "Couples cosplay. It says in order to enter, you must be a couple gay or straight, and at the end of the night they have to perform some kind of skit. Kiddish I know, but what're we gonna do? It's not like we're dating anyone right?"

Completely forgetting that the other two are there, Seiji and Kojima give each other a look before raising both of their arms, almost as if they are gonna hit each other.

"Guess we're screw-"

"BAKUGOOOOU!" Seiji yells, locking his eyes with his boyfriend's.

"KIRISHIMAAA!" Kojima yells back as their hands hit each other and lock in place, pulling the other close with big grins on their faces.

"Heh heh heh! We're so gonna win this thing!" He cackles.

"We'll be the manliest couple there!" Seiji exclaims, flexing his bicep before the two raise their free fists into the air, tilting their heads back for an extra effect. Umi clasps her hands to her mouth, her eyes wide like saucers while Ryoku just sits there completely dumbfounded.

"OMG YOU GUYS ARE DATING! I CALLED IT, I FUCKING CALLED IT!" She squeals.

Both Kojima and Seiji just freeze in place, suddenly realizing their fatal mistake as their faces immediately become engulfed in flames. _Oh shit..._ Sweat drops from their foreheads as they scramble to try and bullshit their way out of the now awkward situation.

"I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!" Kojima blurts out in a flustered rage, waving his hands back and forth, "we-we mean as a couple of friends!"

"Y-yeah! a couple of friends, not anything romantic or anything like that!" Seiji chuckles, nervously scratching at the back of his neck.

"Hmmm..." Umi narrows her eyes as they shift from one liar to the other, "if that's true, then why are your faces so red? And-" she glances at Kojima's heart monitor, "why is your heart beating so fast?"

 _SHIT SHIT SHIT! THINK OF SOMETHING FAST KOJIMA!_ "I uhh...I'm, I'm dying? Yeah my heart is going because I am dying, really fast...right now!"

Seiji shoots him a glare that says, _"_ _what are you doing?"_

Umi immediately bursts in a fit of roaring laughter "oh my god you two are the worst at lying!"

"Okay what is going on?" Ryoku interrupts, "so you guys are dating?"

"I-I...Um... w-well..." Kojima gulps.

"There's no point in hiding it Yosh," and in one fell swoop, Seiji kisses his boyfriend directly on the lips, which immediately make his heart monitor go haywire, while Umi just stands there smiling and giggling like an idiot _My plan worked!_ she thinks to herself.

* * *

Meanwhile...

* * *

Mirai nervously taps her foot against the hard linoleum flooring of a quaint little coffee shop with only about four tables that seat approximately three people each. Her head is down to the floor but her ears are wide open, listening for a familiar voice to say.

"Micchan!"

Her face brightens up like an Led come to life as he lifts her head up to see a woman with brown curls in a wheelchair rolling her way towards her.

"Shuuchan!" Mirai runs up to Shuko and immediately squeezes her.

"Sis! It's been too long!" Shuko exclaims happily.

"Well, when you're a neuroscientist who has to travel the world it kinda takes you away from home," Mirai chuckles, rolling her sister to an empty table.

"I see you're still sporting a lab coat."

"They're useful what can I say?"

The two order coffees and immediately get to talking.

"So how have you been?" Mirai asks

"Oh you know..."

They end up talking for hours and wondering around the Japanese city as the sunlight slowly fades away from behind them.


	17. Chapter 17

A musky, yet overly clean smell enters Mirai's nostrils, filling her with a sense of nostalgia as she enters a very familiar laboratory. Her slightly high-heeled footsteps clack and echo in the desolate, concrete hallway while she walks to an elevator; smiling to herself.

"Hm, seems like this place hasn't changed a bit now hasn't it?" she comments, entering the lifting chamber to go up to the third and final floor. "Everything looks new and polished but it's all just the same."

"You don't look any different yourself Mirai," a male voice chimes in as soon as she exits

"Psh say that for yourself Dr. Mihara," Mirai snarks with a bit of a smirk.

"Oh come on, It's Icchan, you know that," He adds. She rolls her eyes and crosses her arms in a particular way, "come on into the lab, sorry, it's a bit messy."

"Wouldn't expect anything less from you," She follows her former lab partner into a fairly large room full of computers, persocoms, components, wires and monitors. A computer enthusiast's dream really.

"So, I hear that you've taken on my Yoshiyuki as your apprentice huh?" Mirai sits down in an old office chair that is still slightly bent from someone leaning back into for too long and straining the foundation. Reminding her of a time in the past.

"As a matter of fact I have," Ichiro responds, sitting down across the long, steel table across from her.

"Let me guess-"

"Mi-chan, before you say anything no this isn't just part of the experiment, it helps sure, but that isn't the reason why."

The neuroscience raises her eyebrow, "it isn't huh?"

"Nope, as you know Mirai...I only have so long, maybe three years before this form ceases to exist, and I want to achieve two things before that time. I want to pass down my knowledge and experiences onto someone worthy, and Yoshiyuki is more than capable. He is your son after all," the inventor explains.

"It's getting harder to maintain your human form huh?" She asks, Icchan nods in response.

"And...I wanted to get closer to him, maybe take care of him in a way."

"Oh you're doing a great job of doing that," Mirai scoffs.

"Mirai, I didn't mean for him to fall into cardiac arrest, not at all. In fact it is kind of setting back the experiment. That was of his own body's accord. Remember I can't control him only guide him. All I meant was for him to somehow fall into some kind of coma, so his soul could leave his body without anyone noticing."

She shakes her head, "y'know, there are sometimes where I wish I didn't agree to partake in this experiment, especially if I knew it would cause this much pain for everyone."

"But if you didn't, they wouldn't exist. Plus, this is crucial. I need to fix what happened back in the underground when I accidentally created a rift in the timelines. Yume and Yoshi are the glue to seal them back together." Ichiro explains, "but you also have to realize that you were the one who wanted children in the first place."

"I understand that," Mirai takes in a deep breath, "just promise me this. Something like this, like sending my son to the hospital on purpose won't happen again. Or I will never forgive you." her words are like stone, stern and blunt and from the heart. Her eyes have a fire-like anger within them, yet they are also very fearful.

Ichiro gulps, "I promise."

Mirai goes silent for a minute but eventually releases a heavy, shaky breath that she didn't realize she was holding in.

 _But can you really trust him?_

"Oh yeah, Icchan, Yoshiyuki told me something the other day that kind of shocked me."

The Royal scientist immediately sits up straight, looking directly at the travelling Neuroscientist across from him. "Go on, what is it?"

She takes in a deep breath, "he told me, that while he was unconscious he saw his sister... Yume whom we lost five years ago."

"Saw his sister?"

"Yeah..." Mirai repeats what her son told her the day before in almost perfect detail, as she has an excellent memory.

Light glazes over Dr. Mihara's glasses as he lowers his head, "I see."

"What does this mean?"

"It means, Mirai, that things are going over very quickly. If they broke through the timeline barrier then that means it's weakening," a smile curls onto his lips in delight, "if things continue this way then this experiment could very well end in five years!"

Mirai lets out a sigh of relief.

"However," Ichiro puts his elbows on the long, steel table and rests his head along the tops of his hands, "that means that my time is closing rapidly and I will have to work very quickly with Yoshiyuki so that he knows what he will have to do, when he meets _her_ in five years"

Her ears immediately perk up interest. "what do you mean by ' _her_ '?"

Mihara smiles a little bit, "Freya dear? Can you come here for a minute?"

"Freya?" Mirai raises her eyebrow.

"Yes papa?" Freya skips into the room happily and walks next to her father figure as Mirai gasps.

"Ichiro! Don't tell me you actually...!"

"Yes Mirai, yes I did."

* * *

Several hours later...

* * *

 _Ichiro you absolute madman_... Mirai thinks to herself, as she crosses a fairly well known intersection on the way to the hospital.

 _But if you didn't, they wouldn't exist_ , she grits her teeth together. Her children had given her so much joy, more joy than she had ever felt. They brought a strong light to her dim life that she didn't know was missing.

 _But at what cost? Especially to them..._

She crosses her arms out of habit and walks into a nearby shop to grab a quick coffee, when all the sudden she hears her name being called.

"Mirai Kojima!? Is that you?"

She spins around to face the man, "Uh...yes? And you are?"

"Do you not remember me? We were best friends back in grade school!"

Mirai blinks in confusion for a couple seconds, inspecting the strange man when it dawns on her, "oh shit! Masahiro? Whats up? It's been over twenty years since I last saw you!"

"Oh you know, got a job at a law firm in Tokyo about 15 years ago, I'm still working there. What about you?"

 _A shit ton,_ "Wellll I got my degree in neuroscience and now I'm living in Argentina working on this huge research project that takes me all around the world."

Masahiro looks at her in surprise, "Argentina? What brings you to Japan?"

Mirai can feel her heart tighten a little, "visiting my son, it was kind of an emergency."

"You have kids?"

"Yeah, two. Their names are..." her heart tightens much, much more, feeling her throat become heavy, "Yoshiyuki and Yumeyukki."

"Huh, never took you to be the kids type," Masahiro glances at his phone, "Hey I've gotta run but can you give me your email address?"

"Which one? I've got twenty!"

* * *

A few hours later...

* * *

Seiji walks into Yoshiyuki's hospital room early-ish that morning dressed in his work uniform, to see Mirai already there by his bedside.

He is still asleep and wearing his breathing mask, while Mirai's head and arms are gently laying atop his chest. Her eyes are closed, and her breathing is a bit jagged, however she looks to be at peace with herself.

 _Of course he's still asleep, didn't expect to see her though_ "Mirai?"

Mirai slowly lifts her head up from her son's chest and turns to face the source of the sound "Morning Seiji," she greets, adjusting her glasses.

"Mornin, I just came by to say that I'll be gone for a few hours because work suddenly called me in," he explains. She nods with a bit of a confused look on her face.

"They're making you work even though you asked for time off?"

"Yeah, I know it's bullshit but what can you do?" he shrugs with a sigh as he tugs at his singular backpack strap.

Mirai looks over at Seiji and kind of raises her eyebrow, "that's not all that you came here for is it? There is something else I can tell, if that's all there was you would've just texted me, also you seem tense."

He steps back, clearly a little startled, but he takes in a deep breath and looks over at his lover, "yeah, there is..." he closes his eyes and reopens them slightly, "Mirai there is something I need to ask you about; It's about Yoshi."

Mirai pulls over a cheap plastic and beckons Seiji to sit down with her, "what is it?" she asks, however for some reason she feels suspicion creeping around in the back of her mind. She watches as Seiji slowly takes a seat beside her and interlocks his hands and fingers together.

"Yoshiyuki...he isn't completely human is he?" he says finally, after seemingly hours of silence.

She takes in a quick and sharp breath as her form stiffens. "What makes you say this?"

"There have been two instances in which one of his hands wasn't human...it sort of resembled a cat's paw. The first time was seven years ago when we were thirteen, he was holding his stomach and it was only there for a few seconds until I blinked and it disappeared. At first I thought that it was my mind playing tricks on me, but just a few days ago while he was unconscious, I noticed that one of his shoulders had a patch of fur, and when I pulled back the blanket his entire arm had transformed into this paw-arm hybrid, that time I touched it for a split second when, again it disappeared," He explains.

Mirai just remains silent, her fingers retract, clutching at a bit of her skirt. Her eyes are nearly emotionless. Unreadable.

"He's a monster isn't he?"

"... I'm sorry Seiji, it's not something for me to say," she sighs, lowering her head, "...that is something that he will have to tell you himself."

Seiji simply nods, clearly a little disappointed from the exchange and stands up, "I see...well I've got to go to work." however, once he takes a step forwards Mirai stops him in his tracks.

"Seiji wait," he turns his head to face the woman who has acted like his near mother nearly his entire life, "when he does tell you, and perhaps even show you please don't freak out or leave him, he will need you to be there especially in the coming years." she cups his large hand in-between her significantly smaller and scarred ones, looking at him with a desperate look in her glossy eyes, "please, take care of him for me will you? I'm worried about him, I worry about him everyday especially now that his heart temporarily stopped. Just please, promise me you'll make sure he is alright and stable. He needs you now more than ever before."

He slowly closes his eyes and places his hand atop of hers, smiling a little, "I promise, I will." and with that he slowly marches out of the dim hospital room, only looking back and nodding before going away.

It is at the moment where the door shuts when Kojima finally opens his eyes.

* * *

"Oi Yoshiyuki," Mirai says, nudging her son trying to get his attention.

"what?" he responds.

"Can you help me beat Warlord in Dungeon Wrecker? I've been trying for several days and can't defeat him no matter what I do."

"WHAT?! Mom you're that far? I haven't even gotten to the fifth level yet!"

"You aren't?!"

"No! If you haven't noticed I've been dealing with finals for the past month!"

"Well then start playing then!" Mirai forcefully shoves a controller into Kojima's hands.

"Alright, alright geez," _Vrrrrr_ he looks down at his vibrating phone and cracks a bit of a smile, "hey mom, you said that you wanted to meet my boyfriend right?"

"Well yeah wh-" but before she can finish her sentence, Seiji extravagantly bursts in to the room, turning his head from side to side looking around.

"Someone called my name?"

"I present to you: Seiji!" The two share a simple kiss as Mirai giggles in the background.

"Aha! I knew it! I knew that there was something going on between you two!" She exclaims, pointing at them in excitement.

"Yeah...we're pretty bad at hiding it," Seiji admits sheepishly.

"Your dad now owes me 20000 yen," Mirai states.

"Wait you bet on us?" Yoshi blurts out in disbelief.

She nods, "about ten years ago he and I had a bet that you two would end up together in the end."

"Oh my god..." he immediately covers up his face in embarrassment.

Mirai laughs, "anyways, how long have you two been dating for?" she questions. The two lovers just kind of look at each other.

"About a week-ish," they answer, "although it happened over a few days because at first we couldn't really decide whether to start or not."

"Of course, you are the indecisive type aren't you?" she chuckles.

"So, just to clarify...you aren't against it?" Seiji checks.

"Oh fuck no! I think it's great that you two have finally found each other," she grins. Seiji breathes out a sigh of relief while Kojima hits him in the arm.

"See, I told you so."

"Now Yoshiyuki hurry up and beat the game so that you can tell me how to beat Warlord!" she orders!

"Alright, alright sheesh!"

"Wait, you're not passed him yet?" Seiji asks.

"Shut up!" the mother/son duo yell.

* * *

Later that night...

* * *

Mirai takes in a deep breath as she glances at her watch, visitation hours are going to end in approximately five minutes. And once they are over she has to leave for Argentina again.

"Let me guess, visitation hours are almost over?" Kojima asks, she nods.

"I really don't feel like leaving you like this," she responds.

"Mom, I'll be alright. The doctors say that because I am recovering so fast I'll be out of here in two days," he assures his mother, patting her on the back.

"I know... it's just scary to think about y'know? What if something happens when I am gone and I can't come back?"

"Nothing will happen, I promise."

Mirai gives him a look of doubt. "Alright, well I am coming back during Christmas in a few months," she states. Yoshiyuki sits up as best he can, and the two share a tender embrace.

"I love you my Yoshiyuki."

"I love you two mom," he replies. Mirai lets go of her son and kisses the top of his head.

"Before I go do you want anything?" she asks.

"Maybe just on your way out you can ask one of the nurses to bring me like a sweet drink or something."

She nods, and slowly starts to walk away, "okay I will. I love you, take care okay?"

"You too," he recuperates.

"Alright I'll call you tomorrow, see you in a few months." And with that she exits the room one last time, relays her son's request to a nearby nurse and slowly exits the building.

Once Mirai is outside she looks at her son's window and takes in the view of the city, before turning and heading towards the airport, feeling as if she is leaving a piece of herself in Tokyo.


End file.
